GOTTSCHALK + ASH INTERNATIONAL
Communication Designers Association Honours Design
Pioneers Fritz Gottschalk [Zürich] and Stuart Ash [Toronto]
Celebrating 45 Years of Design Excellence
Zürich and Toronto: Communication Designers Association, [2011]. Slim quarto. Perfect bound printed wrappers. 44 pp. Timeline illustrated in color and black and white celebrating Design highlights from the first 45 years of Gottschalk+Ash. A fine copy. Rare. 6 x 9-inch softcover book with 44 pages of Gottschalk+Ash’s Design highlights as assembled by the studio for teh Communication Designers Association.
Fritz Gottschalk (Zürich, b. 1937) has contributed considerably to the dissemination of Swiss design in North America, by a presence in Canada and the US in the 1960s and 70s. He built a solid reputation in brand communication and environmental design with his firm Gottschalk+Ash, and expanded its operations to a multinational organisation.
Gottschalk completed an apprenticeship at the printing and publishing house Orell Füssli while he simultaneously attended classes at the Schule für Gestaltung Zürich. He then worked at the Atelier Typographique in Paris and at London Typographic Designers before enrolling, in 1962, for further training in typography in Emil Ruder’s class at the Schule für Gestaltung Basel.
In 1963, he moved to Canada and became head of graphic design at Paul Arthur & Associates Design, where he worked on major projects such as Expo 67. In 1966 he founded Gottschalk+Ash International in Montreal with Canadian designer Stuart Ash. They later opened offices in Toronto, Calgary, Zurich, New York and Milan. Among their most memorable projects are the Montreal Olympic Games, the SkyDome stadium complex in Toronto, and the Swiss passport design.
Throughout his career, Gottschalk has stood as a prominent exponent of Swiss typography and graphic design. He has spread powerful ideas on both sides of the Atlantic. Thus his work can truly be celebrated as a critical contribution to the development of the “International Style.”
Stuart Ash (Hamilton, ON, b. 1942) is a Canadian Graphic Designer best known for his 1967 design of the Canadian Centennial symbol. Ash’s firm (Gottschalk+Ash) rivaled the world’s top design agencies in its heyday. Ash oversaw a fundamental shift in the public perception of the role of graphic designer, from mere assemblyman to integral player in the creative process.
Growing up in Hamilton, Ash loved to draw, and it was his interest in illustration that first attracted him to the Ontario College of Art and Design (now the Ontario College of Art and Design University). As his studies progressed, he became more and more captivated by the emerging field of design, and by graduation in 1963 it was his entire focus. In Montréal, Ash apprenticed under Anthony Mann at Cooper & Beatty Ltd., and it was under Mann’s tutelage that Ash would design his most enduring work.
Canada celebrated its hundredth anniversary in 1967, and to highlight the event, Cooper & Beatty Ltd. was commissioned to design a celebratory symbol. Ash was assigned to the task. His final design was a stylized multi-coloured maple leaf constructed from 11 equilateral triangles representing Canada’s 10 provinces and the North West Territories (Canada’s accepted geography at the time). The Centennial Symbol was ubiquitous that year and widely applauded, and in 1968 Ash was awarded the Canadian Centennial Medal for his role in designing the Centennial identity program.
It was while in Montréal that Ash first met Swiss designer Fritz Gottschalk, who was working for competing firm Paul Arthur and Associates. The two men recognized in one another a shared commitment to the International Style of design — a typographic style developed in Switzerland in the fifties that emphasized cleanliness and readability — and joined forces in 1966 to form Gottschalk+Ash International in Montréal. A year later the city played host to Expo ’67, an international event with the proclaimed theme, “Man and His World.” The fair would prove influential in the world of design, and Ash’s new firm was at the centre of the action, making connections with international publishers, architects and designers.
In the late 1960s, the International Style of design was only just emerging in North America, and Gottschalk+Ash were one of its main proponents. The firm worked regularly with designers of diverse backgrounds, bringing sometimes radically new ways of thinking into the firm’s design ethos. Their team quickly became internationally known, with projects rivaling top firms like Pentagram in London, Total Design in the Netherlands and Unimark in Chicago. With every new client, Gottschalk+Ash tried to build awareness of design principles and demonstrate how strategic based design added value. The two men were were very competitive, and a healthy rivalry became a fundamental part of their practice. Awareness of graphic design began to spread, and clients began to see the practice as a strategic business communication tool rather than just the creation and production of looks and images.
In 1972, the firm opened offices in Toronto and Ash made the city his new home. Offices in New York followed four years later, opened in collaboration with Ken Carbone and Leslie Smolan of Carbone Smolan Agency. In 1978 Gottschalk established the firm’s Zurich offices and Ash took over the business responsibilities in Montréal, Toronto and New York. The late eighties saw Gottschalk+Ash Toronto take on a number of large projects, including the branding and environmental design of Toronto’s PATH Underground Walkway and Skydome (now called the Rogers Centre) in association with industrial design firm Keith Muller Ltd. The office would go on to create branding and environmental design programs for the American Airlines Arena in Miami and the Boston Exhibition and Convention Center and visual identities for Royal Bank, Shell Oil and The Four Seasons. Ash opened Gottschalk+Ash’s Calgary office in 1997, and it became responsible for developing the branding and environmental design for both the Calgary and Ottawa airports. [Lia Grainger]