Design, Graphics, Decorative Arts, Poster

The Design Collection is devoted to the design of twentieth-century mass-produced objects, and the philosophy they reflect. The focus is on a broad representation of Swiss design, juxtaposed with reference objects of international provenance. The collected objects include items by well-known designers and commonplace objects of anonymous design. The collection now boasts over 25,000 objects, and includes limited-run mass-produced objects augmented by prototypes and models. In addition to acquisitions and donations, the collection includes on permanent loan exemplars of product design, generously supported by the Swiss Confederation, Federal Office of Culture Bern since 1989. Parallel to the object collection, an archive of Swiss Design is being compiled to serve the needs of academic research work. Design drawings, user manuals, patent records, advertising materials, source texts, as well as parts of studio, company, and association archives form the basis of the documentation that extends far beyond the individual object.

The Graphics Collection, in existence since the founding of the museum, is unique in Switzerland in terms of its diversity and its current focus on European graphic design. It documents aesthetic, technical, and cultural changes in our daily lives, from Gutenberg to the present day. Originally compiled as a collection of international works relevant for art and craft instruction at the former school of arts and crafts, the Graphics Collection encompasses all significant graphic disciplines. Once comprised of drawings, print graphics, as well as illustrated books and textbooks from the fifteenth to the twentieth century, over time the collection has come to include private press work, East Asian works, as well as artists’ books, photography, and graphic design. Today the collecting activity concentrates on Switzerland and Europe, with a particular focus on advertising and information graphics, lettering, typography, and book design. The collection is being enlarged by the acquisition of current works by innovative graphic designers and commercial artists, works from the estates of important designers, as well as examples of corporate design from important firms.

The Decorative Arts Collection includes over 15,000 pieces and, alongside the Graphics Collection, is the oldest collection of the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, as well as one of the most important collections of international applied art in Switzerland. Originally conceived as a collection of models and examples for education, trade and industry, the collection focuses on the 19th and 20th centuries. Individual areas such as Coptic and old Peruvian textiles stretch far back into the past, while others reach into the present. The diverse profile traces the artistic processing of glass, ceramics, metal, wood, and textiles and concentrates mainly on Europe. Outstanding examples from the USA and Japan can be found in the field of tapestries and textile sculptures. The Art Nouveau section has groups of works by William Morris, Emile Gallé, René Lalique, Hermann Obrist, and Henry van de Velde, and enjoys an international reputation. Among the finest items are a unique collection of puppets by twentieth-century artists such as Sophie Taeuber-Arp and an important musical instrument collection of some 250 objects.

The Poster Collection is one of the most extensive and important archives of its kind in the world. Over 350,000 posters, 120,000 of them researched and inventoried, document Swiss and international poster history—including political, commercial, and cultural posters—from its beginnings in the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. The geographical emphasis—itself determined by the history of poster design—is on Switzerland, Europe, Japan, Cuba, the former Soviet Union, and the United States. The collection is continually expanded and brought up to date in dialogue with contemporary output and acknowledging historical achievements. The collection’s historical, thematic, and geographical diversity offers both a survey of poster art and a look into a visual archive of the everyday world. In addition to the principal questions of graphics and typology, the collection also concentrates on a socio-political understanding of design, as posters reflect in a unique way the aesthetic and social processes of a particular era.