Gestalt Genius

Hamish Muir dissects Armin Hofmann’s logo for the Swiss National Exhibition at Expo Lausanne in 1964, an open-ended maze for visual exploration. Hofmann’s mastery of visual language shines through in this beautifully observed, economically expressed harmony of positive and negative form. The logotype has an energy and vitality that makes it feel crafted. Unencumbered by any rigid application of grid or geometry, it is drawn rather than constructed – quintessential Hofmann qualities, which place his work apart from many of his Swiss contemporaries.

The real strokes of genius are the open ends of the Swiss cross at bottom and left. These not only allow the forms of the E and + to co-exist but let the white space (both internal and of the background) flow through the combined form. One’s eye never gets stuck; a kind of open-ended maze for exploration which provides continual engagement for the viewer. But the form is unambiguous: the contrast between black and white, foreground and background, positive and negative, is held in perfect balance to create a simple, powerful form. It's all about the ‘gestalt’.

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Expo 1964

For the Swiss National Exhibition in Lausanne in 1964, architects Marc Saugey and Frei Otto designed a series of large tents, made from freely swinging forms and sweeping membranes, were erected by the shore of Lake Geneva to resemble the Swiss alps. One of the most famous of the Expo’s exhibitions was the ‘Gulliver’ project, a sociological study which asked citizens a number of set questions and aimed to show the huge breadth of experiences and views held in Switzerland at the time. So powerful and controversial was the study, that the Federal Council stepped in to curb the level of honesty. In the end, the organisers were banned from asking about the media monopoly, refusal to do military service, abortion, permanent residence rights, nuclear weapons, and communism, among others.
Hamish Muir

Hamish Muir was the co-founder of the London-based graphic design studio 8vo, which started in 1985 and closed its doors in 2001. During this time he also co-edited Octavo, the International Journal of Typography. He now splits his time between MuirMcNeil, a studio founded with type designer Paul McNeil to investigate how parametric design can be applied to communication briefs and, and publishing venture Outcast Editions, which releases digital books about contemporary architecture and design.