Max Koller

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Max Koller (born May 9, 1933 ; † February 16, 2018 ) was a Swiss graphic artist and book designer. He lived in Engelburg near St. Gallen .

life and work

Max Koller grew up in St. Gallen and trained as a typesetter in the Fürer printing house in the 1950s. Between 1955 and 1958 he worked as a designer in Rudolf Hostettler's office at the Zollikofer & Co. AG printing company. In 1959, through Rudolf Hostettler's mediation, Max Koller moved to the agency of Karl Gerstner and Markus Kutter (Gerstner + Kutter) in Basel . After two years he returned to Zollikofer in St. Gallen, where he worked as a versatile designer until his retirement in 1998.

In very few of his works, Max Koller is noted in the imprint - mostly mentioned modestly: design, typesetting and printing Zollikofer & Co. AG, St. Gallen. Few of his works are known. Mention should be made of two exemplary typeface sample directories as well as various catalogs, especially the design of numerous dust jackets, for the publishing house of the Erker Gallery in St. Gallen. He didn't have a style, he always worked as he saw fit, be it asymmetrical or mid-axial. When it came to the variety of tasks, Max Koller helped that on the one hand at Zollikofer he had acquired the confident handling of serif fonts and medium-axial typography and on the other hand at Gerstner + Kutter he had acquired confidence and feeling in handling sans serif and factual typography. Koller's design of the book The Lifelong Interview, the Erna and Curt Burgauer Collection , (Erker Verlag, St. Gallen, 1970) is a good example of his excellent flair for layout and image compositions: the design is clear and orderly, without all elements in one to force too strict a grid. The publication Buchgestaltung in St. Gallen shows various other works by Max Koller that demonstrate his versatility and high level of design.

Max Koller taught typography part-time for 16 years in the advanced training course “Typographic Designer” at the design school in St. Gallen. During this time he was also a member of the federal examination team. His clear, nuanced judgment earned him great respect both as a teacher and as an examination expert.

Web links

http://wiedler.ch/felix/books/story/146

literature

  • Früh, Roland: Book design in St. Gallen. St. Gallen: VGS Verlagsgemeinschaft St. Gallen, 2008
  • Hochuli, Jost: Book design in Switzerland.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Obituaries from February 21, 2018, accessed on March 22, 2018
personal data
SURNAME Koller, Max
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss graphic artist and book designer
DATE OF BIRTH May 9, 1933
DATE OF DEATH February 16, 2018