Max Bill: Typography. Advertising. Book Design

_Insight into Max Bill’s lesser-known typographic and graphic works
_Documentation of his studio’s visual contributions to the 1930s Swiss avant-garde
_Presentation of his two type design principles: drawing-based and sculptural
_Analysis of his unconventional letterforms in relation to Bauhaus concepts and functional thinking

This book offers a concise insight into Max Bill’s lesser-known typographic work as well as his advertising and book designs. Although Bill primarily considered himself an architect, many of his early projects stem from applied graphics and form an important part of his oeuvre. The publication shows how his studio, “bill-zürich reklame,” shaped the visual expression of the Swiss avant-garde around 1930, giving these works significant documentary value.

Bill appears here as a versatile designer of distinctive typefaces, logos, and witty visual solutions. In his typographic inventions, he pursued two principles—one drawing-based and one sculptural. Building on Herbert Bayer’s Universal Type, he developed unconventional letterforms for Neubühl and “wohnbedarf” that deliberately diverged from known models. The characteristic wide “o” reflects both functional considerations and the reductionist ideas of the Bauhaus.