Hans Schleger

Hans Schleger , as an artist: Zéró drawing (* 29. December 1898 in Kempen , Viersen , Germany ; † 18 September 1976 in London ) was a German- British graphic artist and graphic designer , specializing in commercial art , internationally well known for his poster art .

life and work

Hans Schleger ( Zéró ) studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Berlin from 1918 to 1921 , at a time when the influences of the Bauhaus played a major role there.

From 1921 to 1924 Schleger worked as an advertising and film designer for Carl Hagenbeck , also in Berlin . In 1924 he moved to New York City for five years , where he worked, first as a freelance designer, then for a year as the art director of an advertising agency. He taught for a while as a visiting professor at the Institute of Design in Chicago , Illinois . During this time he adopted the pseudonym Zéró to found his own studio on Madison Avenue in New York in 1926. In 1929 Schleger returned to Berlin and worked for the German office of WS Crawford's advertising agency . He settled permanently in England in 1932 and obtained British citizenship in 1938.

He opened his own studio and was primarily involved in designing and promoting British industrial companies including the British Sugar Corporation , Fisons , MacFisheries , Finmar , the John Lewis Partnership and others. Schleger was a close friend of Edward McKnight Kauffer . Both were early representatives of the term “ corporate identity ”. Schlegers poster designs show an intelligent and humorous use of modern design techniques such as photo montage . His advertising campaigns for “ Shell ” and the London transport company were popular . In 1935 he modernized the " circle-and-bar " symbol of London Transport, which has since been used as a bus stop symbol. Schleger was a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI). So he designed the triangular bottle of the whiskey brand Grant's of the distillery William Grant & Sons .

During the Second World War Schleger designed many posters, for example for the London Transport, the Ministry of Food and other government projects.

In 1946 Schleger was significantly involved in the creation of the standard work " The Practice of Design ". During the 1950s and 1960s, he and FHK Henrion (1914–1990) pushed through the idea of corporate identity in Great Britain. For this they worked together with the advertising agency Mather and Crowther . In 1953 they founded " Hans Schleger and Associates ". In 1959 he was appointed Royal Designer for Industry . Schleger developed the logos and signets for the Design Center in Haymarket, London in 1955 and for the Edinburgh International Festival in 1966.

Schleger gave lectures worldwide and had international exhibitions. He has been a visiting professor at the Chelsea Polytechnic, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design , the Royal College of Art , all in London, and the Regional College of Art in Manchester . He was visiting professor at the Institute of Design in Chicago for a year. Solo exhibitions of his works have taken place in London, New York and Chicago, in many European galleries and museums and in Tokyo . In 1964 he participated in documenta III in Kassel in the graphics department .

Literature and Sources

• documenta III. International exhibition ; Catalog: Volume 1: Painting and Sculpture; Volume 2: Hand Drawings; Volume 3: Industrial Design, Graphics; Kassel / Cologne 1964

Web links

• Literature by and about Hans Schleger in the catalog of the German National Library
• Materials by and about Zéró in the documenta archive
• Examples of his works