The Swiss population is called upon to participate actively in political decision-making processes through regular campaigns. These campaigns are often concerned with issues that heat up the emotions and lead to ideological battles. Swiss campaign posters, which have influenced opinion making since the beginning of the 20th century, bear testimony to direct democracy. This special form of political propaganda-prominently associated with Switzerland-is a sensitive indicator of socio-political moods and reflects both national mentalities and global tendencies. Yes! No! Posters for Democracy reveals the visual argumentation strategies and rhetorical approaches that have shaped the Swiss campaign poster from 1918 to the present. Cliched exaggerations, undifferentiated simplifications, a repertoire of drastic motifs and abridged slo- gans correspond to the laws of the medium, which is oriented towards a manipulative appeal to the masses. Appeals to a sense of unity focus primarily on emotionalization, hardly on rational enlightenment. Subtly condensed messages or a graphically innovative language are hardly to be found in Swiss campaign posters. And yet many renowned designers created works that have inscribed themselves in the collective visual memory of the Swiss population and became icons of Swiss poster design.

Bodies act as powerful signs: Which bodies are represented and how, which gaze determines them, which bodies are not shown or only shown in a particular way and in a particular context? Normative ideas of the body and beauty shape images of the self and the world. They are bodies that manifest inequalities and reflect the prevailing relations of power and violence. Talking Bodies examines mechanisms of representation of the body in medial cultures and illus- trates them exemplarily with posters. Masterpieces of art history that have inscribed themselves in the collective memory are negotiated, as are contemporary self-dramatizations in social media, gender stereotypes, images of black bodies, and the representation of disabled and non-normative bodies. With its focus on the construction and impact of body images, but also on possible strategies of resistance, the publication sees itself as a critical contribution to current debates. With essays by Markus Dederich, Florian Diener, Hans Fässler, Bettina Richter, Maria Schreiber, Marilyn Umurungi, Paula-Irene Villa

Iranian graphic design looks back on a brief history. The first poster designers completed independent artistic training and created painterly-illustrative works in the 1960s. The simultaneous opening to the West under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi promoted global cultural exchange. With the proclamation of the Islamic Republic in 1979 and the First Gulf War (1980–1988), however, this was rapidly interrupted. At the end of the 1980s, a new generation of designers took up the graphic heritage of the pre-war period. At the turn of the millennium, the Iranian poster finally conquered international festivals and caused a great stir in the Western community. The volume Contemporary Iran brings together Iranian cultural posters from 1960 to the present. Despite the many different creative approaches, they always demonstrate the search for a fusion of history and contemporaneity, Iran’s own tradition and Western inspiration, art and everyday culture. An often unorthodox interpretation of Persian cultural heritage is combined with the confident use of computer-generated graphics. Thus, some posters confirm common Western notions of Islamic aesthetics, while others radically undermine them and irritate and surprise us.

The medium of the poster is distinguished by displaying messages combining images and text on a static, two-dimensional surface. Designers have, however, always toyed with extending the plane by adding a third dimension, whether spatial or temporal, in order to fool the eye. Stop Motion examines the myriad creative approaches to suggesting movement, recession into depth, dynamics, and rhythm. Perspectival narrowing and plastically rendered motifs are among the traditional stylistic means used in painterly and illustrative posters. Borrowings from Op Art or psychedelic art perplex the eye. In photographic posters, techniques such as blurring or time exposure are used to cause an image to vibrate. But sophisticated printing techniques can also broaden the possibilities of visual expression. In contemporary posters, it is the strictly graphic means of writing, abstract pictograms, or geometric forms that stretch out nested spaces, through which the gaze wanders restlessly. Stop Motion reveals that poster designers have in fact traditionally sought to incorporate the aspect of movement. Moreover, the works assembled in the publication show that-with the exception of the current animated poster trend-the simulation of movement and three dimensions is always the result of a conscious design decision motivated by the respective content.

Marking the centenary of his birth, the Poster Collection series devotes its latest edition to the popular Swiss poster designer Herbert Leupin. Primarily conceiving posters for consumer goods, for many years Leupin created advertising for products as diverse as the soft drink Pepita, charcuterie from Grossmetzgerei Bell, and Roth-Handle cigarettes. He helped these and many other companies develop their own brand identity and a recognizable presence in public space. In doing so, he struck the right balance between old-school artist s posters and a methodology for a successful publicity strategy and thus bridged the increasingly wide divide between art, graphic design, and advertising."

Their posters manifest a reduced expression, convincing in a poetic-sensuous manner while challenging intellectually. In particular the posters advertising exhibitions convey complex contents in a puristic and timeless form. The creations by Hamburger are characterised by a more pro- nounced adherence to tradition-while Staehelin's experimental openness often leads to surprising results.The joint works of the two reveal the mutual appreciation and fruitfulness of the professional exchange; sensitively developed posters for the Museum of Design re ect an inspiring combination of graphic design principles and a pure delight in creative design.With an essay by Claude Lichtenstein

Advertising creates dream worlds, yet always simultaneously bears witness to its era. Both these tendencies are exemplified in fashion posters. Moving beyond the latest modish trends and beauty ideals, fashion posters reflect moral codes and social conditions. In particular, they pander to the longing to escape routine everyday life, for these posters suggest that it is possible to attain a completely new identity simply by opting for a different garment or style. Androgynous models and less normative images of men and women in the advertising industry mark the dawn of a new era that entails constantly balancing aspirations to individuality against a sense of collective belonging. Fashion posters from past and present are lifestyle propositions; they tell stories, seduce and shock. Playing with convention and provocation, bodies are sometimes lavishly veiled and disguised, sometimes sensually staged. At times consumers are only indirectly encouraged to shop. A button or a coat collar as a pars pro toto illustrate product quality in historical posters. A new, somewhat controversial approach to fashion advertising emerges in Benetton campaigns from the early 1990s. Overtly erotic ostentation contrasts with poetic allusions that are for example the hallmark of highly aesthetic Japanese fashion posters. En Vogue brings together fashion advertising spanning roughly a hundred years and deploying myriad different PR strategies, in each case reflecting the cultures and periods in which it was created.