Hats off to Hans Hartmann

Update 11.21.07
I’d like to thank Felix of design book stories and Thierry of art.ifficial for tracking down some additional information on Hans Hartmann.

- He was born in 1913. Died in 1991.

- He originally came from the canton of Argovia, next to Zurich and studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule Zürich. He then went to Bern and among other things designed the (still in use) logo of the national train company SBB. In addition, he designed a fair amount of post stamps.

- The Hans Hartmann estate seems to be in the communal library in berne.

- Lastly, here is a short bio on Hans Hartmann (In german).

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Hans Hartmann is one of the lesser known designers that lived in Switzerland during the 1950s. A google search of his name brings up almost nothing. Outside of his native country his work seems to be lost in obscurity. The only information I have on him comes from a small monograph produced in 1958.

Most of his work centered around companies that were in or around Bern, Switzerland. This included designs for PTT, F. Gygi + Co. and Teppichhaus Bossart & Co. Most likely his contemporaries (Armin Hofmann, Emil Ruder in Basel , Josef Muller Brockann in Zurich) located to the North of Bern would of been aware of his work. However, I was unable to find any information that suggested any collaborations with these other designers.

If anyone has any information related to Hans or his design work, please contact me. It would be great if we could build a more complete resource on this talented designer. Thanks to the poster connection for the top 2 images.

Tags: 1950s, graphic design, posters, swiss, switzerland