NAPOLI
Gottschalk + Ash International [Designer]
Gottschalk + Ash International [Designer]: NAPOLI. Lissone, Italy: Arti Grafiche Meroni, [1985]. Original impression. 26.5 x 38 - inch [67.31 x 96.52 cm] trim size image printed via offset lithography on a semi-gloss sheet. A fine, fresh example.
26.5 x 38 - inch [67.31 x 96.52 cm]poster designed by Gottschalk + Ash “A poster commissioned by Napoli ’99 Foundation as a contribution towards the cultural image of the city.”
The Naples NinetyNine Foundation sponsored a series of 25 posters from 1984 – 1986 with the primary objective of contributing to the knowledge, promotion and enhancement of cultural heritage of Naples and Southern Italy.
The 25 participating designers were Walter Allner, Stuart B. Ash, Saul Bass, Bruce Blackburn, Pierluigi Cerri, Ivan Chermayeff, Giulio Confalonieri, Heinz Edelmann, Gene Federico, Alan Fletcher, Jean-Michel Folon, André François, Milton Glaser, Tomás Gonda, F H K Henrion, David Hillman, Takenobu Igarashi, Mervyn Kurlansky, Italo Lupi, John Mcconnell, Armando Milani, Art Paul, Tullio Pericoli, Arnold Schwartzman, and Massimo Vignelli.
Their interpretations of the city cover a wide range of themes: architecture, poetry, music, the earthquake, pollution, Vesuvius. The 25 posters have been exhibited in Naples, Rome, Los Angeles, Dundee, and Lahti. The project won the award for the best social graphics at the 1987 Lahden Biennal Exhibition. Collect them all!
A leading exponent and proponent of Swiss graphic design and the International Style, Fritz Gottschalk (Swiss, b. 1937) lives and works in Zurich, the city where he was born in 1937.
After attending primary and secondary schools in Zurich 1944-54, Fritz apprenticed as a typographic designer with Orell Füssli Grafische Betriebe AG Zurich and later at School of Design HFG, 1954-58. By 1959 he could be found in Paris, working as a freelance graphic designer and maquettiste at Atelier Typographique. Later he moved to London, where he worked at London Typographic Designers producing all manner of editorial, collateral and publications.
In the early 1960s, Fritz Gottschalk returned to Switzerland to complete his post-graduate studies in visual communication at Basel School of Design HFG. In 1963 he relocated to Canada. There he completed a comprehensive signage system for the 1967 World Exposition in Montréal, while heading the graphic design department at Paul Arthur & Associates. He received Awards of Excellence in the field of graphic design by the Swiss Department of Interior Affairs, Berne in 1963/64/65. In 1966 he co-founded Gottschalk+Ash Ltd with Stuart Ash. In 1968, Fritz became a dual citizen of Switzerland and Canada, the same year that G+A’s work was featured in an exhibition at the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts.
The 1970s proved another active decade for Fritz Gottschalk. In addition to serving as juror for the 1975 Royal Canadian Academy Art Exhibition, Fritz designed postage stamps and the official lottery ticket, coordinated all visual aspects of the sponsor programs and headed the office of design for the 1976 Olympic Games in Montréal. By 1978 he had returned to Zurich to open G+A’s office there.
During the mid-1980s, Gottschalk embarked upon one of the most influential, prestigious and visible commissions of his career, design of the Swiss passport. An elegant solution whose cover employs the white Swiss cross on a minimalist red field, the passport was quickly recognized as the most powerful emblem internationally for the Swiss nation, a design solution which remains unequalled to this day. Fritz served for six years as Secretary Treasurer for AGI beginning in1985, at the same time directing G+A’s Milan office.
Fritz Gottschalk spent the 1990s in an energetic period of design and advocacy, creating symbols for Ice Hockey World Championship, a new outdoor advertising concept for the city of Zurich, and as a member of the Board of Directors at Graphis Publishing. G+A’s work was recognized in exhibitions in Frankfurt (“The World of Graphic Design”), Montréal and Toronto (G+A Retrospective), and Zurich (Coninx-Museum). Fritz keynoted the SEGD meeting in Seattle in 1994, and began an association as annual juror for the FAW, Frankfurt. He also participated in an AGI seminar in Beijing in 1995.
Since the year 2000, Gottschalk has occupied himself with encouraging the next generation of G+A’s professional evolution, acting as senior denizen of the firm in Zurich, occupying a singular and iconic place in the world design community. In 2004 he delivered a lecture series at the Institut Krakau entitled “Designing Modernity.” In 2006 he was a Founding member of DACH (Design Archive Switzerland). In the course of his career, he’s received over 100 awards at various international design competitions. In 2011 Fritz Gottschalk received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Graphic Design Canada, in recognition of extraordinary work celebrating the highest principles of Swiss design.
Stuart Ash (Canadian, b. 1942) is an internationally renowned pioneer of Canadian graphic design.
He studied graphic design at the Western Technical School from 1957 to 1962, and at the Ontario College of Art from 1962 to 1964. Once graduated, he started an apprenticeship under Anthony Mann at Cooper & Beatty in Toronto. Cooper & Beatty was commissioned to create Canada’s Centennial Symbol and arranged to collaborate with Paul Arthur and Associates on the project. It was there where he met the Swiss designer Fritz Gottschalk who at that time was working in the Montreal office of the prestigious Paul Arthur+Associates on the Expo 67 sign system.
In 1966, after Gottschalk withdrew from the agency, they started to work together and founded Gottschalk+Ash in Montreal, that soon became one of the world’s best design firms rivaling with Pentagram, Total Design, and Unimark International.
In 1967 the Canadian Confederation celebrated its 100th anniversary and Stuart Ash’s symbol design was selected as the official mark for the celebrations, a geometric, multi-colored maple leaf formed by eleven equilateral triangles representing Canada’s ten provinces and the Northwest Territories. The mark was widely applauded, and in 1968 Ash was awarded the Canadian Centennial Medal for his role in designing the Centennial’s identity program.
In 1972 the firm Gottschalk+Ash opened another office in Toronto and Ash made the city his new home. An office in New York—opened in collaboration with Ken Carbone and Leslie Smolan—followed four years later. In 1978 Gottschalk established a new office in Zurich, and another one—cofounded with Walter Ballmer—followed in 1982 in Milan. At the same time, Ash took over the business responsibilities in Montreal, Toronto, and New York City, and in 1997 he opened another office in Calgary. He stayed at the head of the agency until his retirement in 2007, at which time he sold the Canadian, Toronto and Calgary Offices of Gottschalk+Ash.
Since its foundation, Gottschalk+Ash served major clients including American Airlines, Calgary Airport, Four Seasons, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Ottawa Airport, and Shell Oil. Today, the Swiss office of the company still works in Zurich as Gottschalk+Ash International, headed by Fritz Gottschalk himself and his partner Sascha Lötscher.
Member of the AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale) since 1974, during his career he was awarded the Canadian Centennial Medal in 1968, the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts Centennial Medallion in 1998, the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008, and was Honored by the Communication Design Association in 2011. His work has been exhibited in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the National Gallery of Canada, and the Mead Library of Ideas in New York.