Celestino Piatti

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Logo of the German Heart Foundation designed by Celestino Piatti

Celestino Piatti (born January 5, 1922 in Wangen, canton of Zurich ; † December 17, 2007 in Duggingen, canton of Basel-Landschaft ) was a Swiss graphic artist, painter and book designer who was known for designing dtv titles.

Life

The son of Ticino stonemason and a Zurich farmer's daughter grew up in Dietlikon , attended from 1937 evening classes at Ernst and Max Gubler at the School of Applied Arts in Zurich and learned 1938-1942 the craft of graphic designer in the dispensary brothers Fretz. In 1945 he was in the recruiting school and active service. From 1945 to the end of 1947 Piatti worked in Fritz Bühler's graphic studio in Basel. In 1946 he married the graphic artist Marianne Stricker, with whom he had three children.

From 1948 he worked as a freelance graphic designer, in Riehen near Basel until 1966 and then in Basel and Duggingen until his death . In 1969 he married the journalist Ursula Huber, with whom he had two children.

plant

He achieved his first international success as a poster designer. He won a prize with his first poster, which he designed in 1948 for the BKG Liga discount brand in Basel . Many of his more than 500 artist posters have been awarded prizes. In 1960 he exhibited together with Hans Erni , Alfred Pauletto , Hugo Wetli and Kurt Wirth on the subject of graphic artists as a painter . In 1964, his works were shown at documenta III in Kassel in the graphics department .

Piatti made his work for the Deutsche Taschenbuch Verlag (dtv) , to which Bruno Mariacher, the director of the Artemis Verlag , had recommended Piatti, particularly well known . From the founding of the dtv publishing house in 1961 until the mid-1990s, Piatti designed almost exclusively its books. In addition to the cover design, he was responsible for typography, signet, letterheads, advertisements and posters so that he could create a uniform corporate identity . The distinctive, uniformly white dtv volumes with Piatti's characteristic illustrations are considered to be a milestone in elegant, high-quality paperback book art. Until then, its design had mainly related to the individual title and was therefore hardly able to create brand awareness for entire paperback series.

Piatti created a total of over 6300 book covers, picture books and book illustrations; the total circulation of the books he designed is over 200 million copies to date. In addition to posters and books, his works also include free printmaking (in lithography, woodcut and linocut), postage stamps (the most famous of which is the “100 Years Gotthard Railway” anniversary), glass pictures, murals and other paintings as well as ceramics and sculptures.

One motif that pervades his entire work is the owl , which arouses diverse associations as a lucky charm or messenger of bad luck and also as a symbol of wisdom. In 1992 Piatti remarked in a magazine: You can draw the owl a thousand times, you can't get at its secret .

The Celestino Piatti Prize for book graphics , donated by dtv, is named after Piatti .

literature

  • Manuel Gasser: Celestino Piatti. The commercial, graphic and painterly work . ABC-Verlag, Zurich 1979, ISBN 3-85504-058-3 (extended edition: dtv, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-423-02880-7 )
  • Jens Müller (Ed.): A5 / 03: Celestino Piatti + dtv - The Unity of the Program . Lars Müller Publishers, Baden 2009, ISBN 978-3-03778-178-4
  • General artist lexicon: Bio-bibliographical index AZ , KG Saur, Munich u. Leipzig 2000, Volume 7, Page 750, ISBN 3-598-23917-3
  • J. Rast. Graphic artist as painter: Hans Erni, Alfred Pauletto, Celestino Piatti, Hugo Wetli, Kurt Wirth . Olten: Kunstverein Olten, 1962.
  • René Wanner: Celestino Piatti. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . September 28, 2010 , accessed December 13, 2019 .
  • Bruno Weber (Ed.): Celestino Piatti. Master of the graphic symbol . dtv, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-423-02897-1

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Simone Thalmann. Piatti, Celestino . 1998. In: Archivlink ( Memento from March 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). Retrieved August 12, 2012
  2. ↑ Felix Graf: His pictures give books a face. Celestino Piatti designed more than 6,000 book covers for the German paperback publishing house - thereby creating a cultural heritage . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung of December 28, 2017, p. 35.
  3. ↑ Martin Halter: "You can draw an owl a thousand times", in: Tages-Anzeiger, Zurich, December 20, 2007.
personal data
SURNAME Piatti, Celestino
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss graphic artist and book designer
DATE OF BIRTH January 5, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Wangen, Canton of Zurich
DATE OF DEATH December 17, 2007
Place of death Duggingen, Canton of Basel-Country