Josef Müller-Brockmann

The face of Swiss Style. Müller-Brockmann's concert posters for the Zurich Tonhalle from the 1950s onwards use nothing but sans-serif type, coloured bands and arcs laid on a strict mathematical grid, yet they feel as rhythmic as the music they advertise. His 1981 book Grid Systems in Graphic Design turned the method into something anyone could learn, and it still underpins web layout today. His road-safety poster der Fussgänger ist schutzlos, with its looming car wheel, shows he could also hit hard.