Herbert Matter Matters.

This graphic designer was a swiss designer who studied and worked in Paris, he later returned to Switzerland and designed posters for the Swiss tourist office. These posters instantly became internationally popular due to his innovative use of combining typefaces with photomontages. His works show clear signs of grid line structures. When one looks at his photography one notices the precision and objectivity implied. Other characteristics Matter used were the use of san serif typefaces and asymmetrical layouts.

 In the image above we can see how Matters combined image and type in an innovative way. By today’s standards this is almost a norm, although it still looks great, such designs have been reused and build upon. But looking at this poster with respect to its time period it was new, it was something the common people had never seen before. And this is where the beauty of design lies, in creativity and imagination which has in turn paved the way for design as we know it today.

Once again we see an example of something which still looks visually aesthetic today, but ‘by todays’ standards it is nothing special’. And as said before at the time it was brand new and innovative. Designers didn’t have the software capabilities at the time which have made graphic design that much easier. In the image above we see simplicity and minimalism. This is due to two main factors, one being the use of negative space and the other is that all the artist had to do is super impose two images on top of each other, whilst fading them into the background. The way that matters combined the images creates a focal point (which in my opinion is the main attraction), the combination of the eye with the detail on the butterfly wing.