Théo Ballmer


Auguste Théophile Ballmer was born in Basel in 1902. In the city, he trained as a draftsman and studied with Ernst Keller at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich. Ballmer began working professionally as a designer for Hoffmann-La Roche in 1926. In his years with the company, Ballmer met several avant-garde contemporaries, including Hannes Meyer. In 1928, Ballmer enrolled in the Bauhaus, then under the direction of Meyer. At school, he studied photography with Walter Peterhans. Ballmer left the Bauhaus in 1930, motivated by his left-wing political beliefs. Ballmer is best known for his political poster designs, produced immediately after leaving school. The works are characterized by the use of red and black linoleum silhouettes and leftist messages. In 1931, Ballmer joined the faculty of the Allgemeine Gewerbeschule Basel, where he taught photography and design. Ballmer remained associated with the school until his death in 1965.  After 1930, Ballmer also worked for various corporate clients; among the work, he produced in this capacity is the logo of the Basel municipal authority. In the mid-1940s, Ballmer and his contemporary, Max Bill, pioneered a new style of graphic design characterized by the use of photographs, sans serif typefaces, and logical arrangement of elements. The work produced by the two designers in this period was instrumental in the later emergence of the International Typographic Style.



“Büro” poster




In 1928 Ballmer’s poster designs achieved a high degree of formal
harmony as he used an ordered grid to construct visual forms. In his “Büro” poster, both the
black word and its red reflection are carefully developed on the underlying grid.

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The International Typographic Style, also known as International Typographic Style, Swiss School or Swiss Style, is a style of graphic design, developed in Switzerland in the 1950s, and which had great strength and impact for more than two decades, even reaching to have great influence today has the characteristics emphasizing cleanliness, readability and objectivity. Hallmarks of the style are asymmetric layouts, the use of a grid, sans-serif typefaces, and left-aligned, irregular right text. The style is also associated with a preference for photography rather than illustrations or drawings. Many of the early works of the International Type Style featured typography as a primary design element in addition to its use in text, and it is for this that the style is named. The beginnings go back to De Stijl, the Bauhaus, and the fonts of the 20s and 30s. The Swiss designer's Josh Krlos, Théo Ballmer, and Max Bill, students of the Bauhaus, created the link between the beginning of cons...
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