We bought a large vintage plate last week. We were in two minds as to whether we should pick it up or not. It was mainly brown and slipware decorated with a couple getting married; it had a very folk art feel.
We got it home and, after studying it with a magnifying glass, we managed to decipher the marks on the back. It was crudely incised with kohler biel keramik handarbeit. We looked online and discovered that it was made by Swiss ceramicist, Hugo Kohler.
We found lots and lots of other pieces by him for sale on eBay and Etsy, amongst other places, but couldn’t find out anything about Hugo Kohler himself. Can you help?
Michael Meister is a Swiss illustrator. In the early 1980s, he studied graphic design in Bern, initially working freelance for museums, advertising agencies, newspapers and magazines.
He has lived and worked throughout Europe being employed by companies such as Daimler-Chrysler, then over to New York where he remained for a few years. Currently, he lives with his family near Basel in Switzerland.
Michael has created illustrations for clients internationally; these include the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Nestlé and Deutsche Bahn.
A selection of his work is available on his website.
I can’t remember if it was when I was researching fellow Swiss designer, Donald Brun, or something I saw on the 365PosterBlog, but I came across the work of Niklaus Stoecklin (1896–1982).
His graphic design and advertising posters are bright and eye-catching. He brought interest to the everyday mundane – toothpaste, soap, eggs, household cleaners…
I love his studies of butterflies, moths, birds and other natural subjects. However, some of his other, more ‘artistic’, work is uncomfortable, uneasy, disturbing and bordering on the macabre. Perhaps it’s because he was affected by the 1st World War – when he was forced to flee Berlin where he was at art school, and return to Switzerland.
He was an exponent of the German, post-Expressionist Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) movement along with the likes of Otto Dix, Max Beckmann and others.
His work is in the permanent collections of MOMA, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Cooper Hewitt. His painting, Helmgasse, Basel, 1923 sold at Sotheby’s Zurich ‘Swiss Art’ sale in 2006, fetching $110,820 US. Examples of his vintage original posters are for sale anywhere from 500€ to 20,000€. A copy of his E Guete! frying eggs poster (bottom left) sold for $9,375 US at auction in 2014. Prints are more readily affordable from less than a tenner! Try art.co.uk and Etsy.
Donald Brun (1909-1999) was one of the most influential Swiss graphic designers and poster artists of his time. His work is humorous, fun and eye-catching. He used a palette of bright colours, often depicting stylised animals and inanimate objects taking on human traits.
His images were condensed down to their elemental message; simple, yet thoughtfully and intelligently designed. Take, for example, the smoking cockerel in his Gauloises poster (pictured above, 2nd row, on the right); not only is the bird’s body an angled packet of the cigarettes, his comb is a lick of fire and his legs are composed of matchsticks.
He was commissioned by many big companies such as Swissair, Perrier, Persil and Bata. He created the Pavilion for Chemistry at the Brussels World’s Fair in 1958; the event famous for bringing us the Atomium. Unfortunately, I can’t find any images of the building.
He has a huge back catalogue and many of his designs, especially his advertising posters, are readily available. Original vintage examples and new prints can be found on Amazon, art.co.uk, Artnet and eBay.
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