Swiss vs Ulm School (HfG Ulm)
スイス・スタイル / ウルム造形大学
Swiss comes from Functionalism and Ulm School (HfG Ulm) from Postwar Industrial Design. Both are read here as style. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.
Swiss
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Puts order front and center and makes the information itself the protagonist.
Ulm School (HfG Ulm)
Founded by Max Bill as the Bauhaus's successor, the school redefined design as science, method and system. Its collaboration with Braun made the functionalist face a world standard.
| Swiss | Ulm School (HfG Ulm) | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 1950s– | 1953–1968 |
| Family | Functionalism | Postwar Industrial Design |
| Kind | Style | Style |
| Cues | Strict grid / Sans-serif type / Asymmetry / Objective photography | Method and system / Grids and modules / Ornament excluded / Design as science |
| Best used for | Making complex information fast to read · Giving an organization rationality and transparency | Aligning a product family and its markings as one system of rules · Building a device whose operation is explained by symbols and color rules alone |
| Type | Neutral sans-serif; be bold with size contrast | One sans face, three sizes at most, everything ranged left |
| Composition | 12-column grid, left-aligned, asymmetric | Lay out controls and displays on a grid of modular dimensions |
| Material | White space and objective photographs; almost no ornament | Neutral surfaces with one or two colors allowed to mark function |
| Caution | Too much tidiness turns anonymous. Keep one strong jump in scale. | Borrowing the grey and the grid without deciding the reasoning leaves nobody able to justify a rule, and the system collapses as elements are added. |