SIGNET SIGNAL SYMBOL
EMBLÈME SIGNAL SYMBOL
HANDBOOK OF INTERNATIONAL SIGNS
Walter Diethelm, Hans Neuberg [preface]
Walter Diethelm, Hans Neuberg [preface]: SIGNET SIGNAL SYMBOL [EMBLÈME SIGNAL SYMBOL]: HANDBOOK OF INTERNATIONAL SIGNS. Zürich: ABC Verlag, 1970. Fourth edition, 1984. Text in German, French, and English. Square quarto. Glazed printed boards. Black backstrip. Printed dust jacket. Black endpapers. 226 pp. Multiple printed vellum sheets reproducing thumbnail sketches bound in [as issued]. Over 2,000 examples of color and black and white signs and signets. Glossy black jacket lightly worn along top edge with a short closed tear to rear panel. Textblock faintly thumbed, so a nearly fine copy in a nearly fine dust jacket.
10.25 x 10 hardcover book with 227 pages and over 2,000 examples of color and black and white signs and signets. With contributions by Dr. Marion Diethelm, Eugenio Carmi, Adrian Frutiger, Masaru Katzumie, Hans Kauer, Hans Neuburg, Prof. Ryszard Otreba, Paul Rand, and Hans Weckerle.
"I am convinced that this book represents the first consolidated standard work dealing with this complex subject.” — Hans Neuburg, from his Preface
- Signals, Symbols, Signets, They are All Signs by Hans Kauer
- Protective Signs and Signals by Marion Diethelm
- The Sign Language: Number, Picture, Sign with essays by Hans Kauer and Marion Diethelm
- The Sign as a Cultural Leitmotiv
- Information Media
- Publicity for the Public Services
- Raw Material and Their Refinement
- Change and Planning
- The Market Needs Marks
- Publicity and Designing
- Logotypes as Signs
- Competitions by Hans Neuburg
- Terminology by Marion Diethelm and Hans Kauer
- Semiotic Classifications of Signs by Hans Weckerle
- Index of Designers
Over 500 designers are represented including many Swiss designers and Primo Angeli, Walter Ballmer, Walter Bangerter, Saul Bass, Lester Beall, Felix Beltran, Emil Biemann, Rudolf Bircher, Giovanni Brunazzi, Paul Bühlmann, Chermayeff & Geismar, Seymour Chwast, Wim Crouvel, Alan Fletcher, Adolf Flückiger, Piero Fornasetti, Adrian Frutger, Roger-Virgile Geiser, Robert Geisser, Milton Glaser, Morton Goldsholl, Fritz Gottschalk, Joseph Graber, Jörg Hamburger, Erich Hänzi, Rudolph de Harak, Hans Hartmann, Armin Hofmann, Yusaku Kamekura, Stefan Kantscheff, Tetsuo Katayama, Christian Lang, Raymond Loewy, George Nelson, Rémy Peignot, Paul Rand, Hansruedi Scheller, Anton Stankowski, Henry Steiner, Hans Thöni, Massimo Vignelli, Carlo Vivarelli, Franz Wagner, Hansruedi Widmer, Kurt Wirth, and Marcel Wyss.
Walter J. Diethelm [Zürich, 1913– 1986] was a type designer credited with Diethelm Antiqua (or Diethelm Roman) (Haas, 1948-1950; Linotype, 1957: a stocky text typeface), Sculptura (1957), Arrow (1966, VGC, a Peignotian or lapidary face), Abacus, Aktiv, Capitol, and Gloriette.
The Swiss International Style derived from the idea that "abstract structure is the vehicle for communication," according to alumnus Kenneth Hiebert. "It relies on an analysis that rigorously questions and accounts for all parts of a message. The act of searching for an appropriate structure forces the designer to make the most basic inquiry about a message, to isolate its primary essence from considerations of surface style."
Hiebert wrote "The Swiss school is concerned that design be more than a frivolous cluttering of the environment." Sounds good to me.