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A new objective rationalism took hold of graphic design in the built
environment during the postwar era of the 1950s to the 1970s.
Modernism, void of style and of the outdated influence of prevalent
art movements of the earlier part of the twentieth century—art
nouveau and art deco—became a powerful and pervasive point of
view for decades to come.
During this same era, a common movement in graphic design
and architecture emerged from Switzerland and Germany and
became one of the most influential design movements of the twen-
tieth century.
The International Typographic Style, or Swiss Style, emerged
from Switzerland during the 1950s and was based on the visual
principles of order, function, and clarity. Its reliance upon pure ge-
ometry, asymmetrical ...