Dropyx

I absolutely love this promotional poster and brand identity created by UK creative agency six for the new German creative network Dropyx. Six design beautiful work much of which is stripped right back but the message remains very strong. On their website is an invite for the Helvetica 50 exhibition organised by Blanka that takes inspiration from the original Helvetica type manuals - great work.

Philips-Twen

Between 1961 and 1968, the magazine Twen produced a series of LP recordings in collaboration with the Philips record label. This book 'Realism is the score' illustrates all 70 sleeves from this LP Series and includes an interview with jazz legend Klaus Doldinger, whose first three records appeared on Philips-Twen. The roster of artists/designers who contributed work for the cover art is quite impressive. Willy Fleckhaus who served as the art director for the Philps-Twen series used work by Karl Gerstner, Max Bill, Heinz Edelmann, Michael Engelmann and others to guide the look of the series. More of these excellent covers can be viewed at grain edit.

Otto Baumberger

Otto baumberger (1889 – 1961) was a designer, painter and illustrator. He was best known for his posters and during his career created over 230 in a variety of styles. As an employee for Zurich printers Wolfensberger AG, he acquired a sound knowledge of lithography techniques and used this in his posters to great effect. He studied in Munich, Paris and London before returning to Zurich to become assistant teacher at the Kunstgewerbeschule until 1933. His posters covered a broad gamut from painted forms to stripped back minimalist illustrations many of which were pioneering examples of the Modernist style.

Theo Ballmer

Theo Ballmer (1902-65) is best known for his posters of the 1920s and 30s and is considered one of the true heroes of modernist design. Born in Basel, Ballmer received part of his training at the Zurich Kunstgewerbeschule, where one of his teachers was Ernst Keller, the ‘father of Swiss graphic design’. By the time he became a student at the Bauhaus he was already an established designer and producing great work.

N+M

In the late 1960s Erwin Poell created these incredible covers (and others) for Naturwissenschaft und Medizin (Natural Science and Medicine) magazine. Erwin Poell a German graphic artist, trained as a lithographer and typographer. From 1951 he studied at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart and from 1955, he worked independently. His covers conveyed complex medical and scientific theories in a very simplistic modernist way. In 1992 a book titled 'Entwürfe für den Alltag. Typografie. Grafik-Design. Art Direction' was published of his works.

Films in Black and Red

Designer Olly Moss has created a series of black and red film posters in a minimalistic style. For me these are the pick of the series as they are clever and well executed. Olly is also the man behind those stylish Video Game Classics book covers that have appeared all over the web. He clearly has a penchant for Saul Bass and clean minimal design.

Skilled Concept

Ray Sison of Skilled Concept is a renowned New York based designer and has created a number of fantastic minimalistic wine labels that are based upon the 'International Style'. He also disects his poster 'Interpretation of minimal design' on his blog, to show his creative thought process on minimalism.