In 1947 Otl Aicher, a German Graphic Designer, designed this poster for Volkshochule Ulm. Volkshochule Ulm is a German University that was founded in 1946 (post-war) by Aicher and his wife (Inge Scholl). He actually designed this during one of his lectures at the university.
The poster is titled “Wiederaufbau,” which translates to “the rebuilding.” During this time Germany was in deep in the phase of reconstructing the economy and society from their broken post war state. Aicher played a key part in the re-build of German and this poster is a testament to this.
At first I didn’t understand the imagery, other than the fact the hand look like it was rising up, symbolising the resurgence of Germany after the war. As I looked at it longer though, I realised it was in fact a hand holding a brick. This single hand is stretched vertically along the poster, it provides an offering that will contribute to the physical rebuild, and this poster is his way of helping, a poster like this would raise awareness all over the country.
The colour theory in this poster is great. The primary colour red signifies passion and love which is perfect for a cause close to his heart and home. It also is a colour that is often seen in war, whether its a coat of arms, first aid symbol or poppy fields.
Additionally the warm colour links to the idea of the stereotypical orange building brick. So his colour choice conveys his message and feelings.
The typeface he used is said to be inspired by the Bauhaus font, so once again Aicher is sticking to his roots as Bauhaus is a German font designed by Joe Taylor in 1969. It also unifies nicely with his illustration as it too is curvaceous. The positioning of the font itself is very neat and structured with justified alignment
Many of his posters have a similar style to this one. For example, the following posters resemble each other in imagery. They all have very swooping forms and some sort of horizontal split line where the colour flips in an inverse fashion.
When looking at other posters designed in 1947 Germany I can see that Aicher was ahead of his time. Very few touch on his level of contemporary minimalism. They all seem to have a classic style with illustrations on them rather than his cutout graphic style.
