Archive Newsletter No. 6.3
August 2019
In this third and final part of the Newsletter series, which deals with the exhibition The Utopia of Design (1994), a special focus will be placed on the field of corporate design.
The example of the 1972 Olympic Games illustrates how the various areas of design, architecture and corporate design
intertwine.
In the course of the Olympics, much more changed than just the Oberwiesenfeld in Munich[1]. The milestones in the implementation of the major event Olympia had a worldwide influence on an interdisciplinary context of design, architecture, urbanism, and art.
If corporate identity is regarded as part of an economic practice, a total of four periods can be distinguished [2]:
– Traditional period
– Brand technical period
– Design period
– Strategic period
At the beginning of the 1950s, the concept of corporate design began to change. Form, colour, and aesthetics of the manufactured products now formed the basis for the redesign of the entire appearance of a company (the so-called design period). The models for a successful product design philosophy of the 1950s were the companies Braun and Olivetti.
In this context, the design of the product "Olympic Games" by Otl Aicher from 1967 to 1972, whose colour design, pictograms, and orientation systems created a new overall graphic impression at the time, is of particular importance for the further development of corporate identity. The pictograms that Aicher developed for the Olympic Games are still of international standard today. The accentuated non-political expansion of the Olympic Games claim to design to include communicative, social and interactive elements was a major factor in the development of corporate design.
Otl Aicher (1922-1991) was one of the founders of the Hochschule für Gestaltung, Ulm. Aicher and his environment were of the opinion that art was "an escape from the manifold tasks that also grew up for culture when the Nazi regime was in disarray"[3]. Only graphic and product design should serve to humanize society comprehensively. [4]
In the 1960s, the Ulm design principles were quickly and exemplarily applied in an industrial context through the collaboration with the Braun brothers. The Braun company illustrates how the unity of technological concept, controlled product design and strictly ordered means of communication (such as letterheads, brochures, catalogues) resulted in an overall appearance of a company that is exemplary in its stringency.
Braun thus became the centre of a movement that attracted worldwide attention, known as the "good form". [5] The appearance of Braun, which Aicher conceived in 1954 and was later further developed by Dieter Rams, is today considered a milestone in the development of corporate design, as is the identity of Lufthansa, designed in 1960.
The philosophy of the Olympics ultimately became the impetus to extend corporate design to corporate identity. From the mid-1970s, a clear strategic concept of corporate identity developed as an instrument of corporate policy. The significance of corporate identity in theory and practice also began. [6]
"In economic practice, corporate identity is therefore the strategically planned and operationally applied self-portrayal and behaviour of a company internally and externally on the basis of a fixed corporate philosophy, a long-term corporate objective and a defined (target) image, with the will to present all the company's instruments of action internally and externally in a uniform framework. [7]
Corporate identity now also means the comprehensive integration of employees into the corporate culture. It had been understood that a company only has a credible appearance if internal behavioural principles in the sense of corporate behaviour exist that complement design and communication. The company is thus understood as a metaphor for society. It results from this that a company does not only have a culture, but it is culture. [8]
Simultaneously with the Olympic Games, Otl Aicher worked the design philosophy of Bayerische Rück between 1969 and 1972o. Since this company did not manufacture any products, its cultural image was all the more important. [9] Through corporate design and corporate identity such as that of Bayerische Rück, the companies were now provided with internal and external design, which they were to consciously integrate into the corporate image of "society".
Of all the approaches to comprehensive reshaping through design, architectural projects were probably the most successful, along with access to the companies' image. [11] With the Olympics and in the course of the urban development plan for Munich from 1963 onwards, the urban landscape increasingly became a representative image of the new city. In the east of Munich, the Entlastungsstadt Neuperlach for 80,000 inhabitants was created in 1967. In addition, the transport network was extended by ring roads and an underground railway network and the city centre was converted into a pedestrian zone. The significance and character of the old districts changed dramatically, and at the same time rural open spaces were developed. Of course, this was accompanied by a decline in regional lifestyles in the old districts, and their price levels changed dramatically. The social housing in Neuperlach was mainly occupied by less wealthy people and families, and the inner city became free for tourists and the wealthy part of the population. A development whose destructive character was already known in the 1960s, especially in US research. [12]
"The economic camaraderie, which every factory is already keen to increase its production, brings the last private impulse under social control, precisely by making the conditions of people in production seem to be direct, reprivatizes. [10]
The new, urban image of the city of Munich was structured in particular by a setting architecture of large companies. In 1969 Siemens AG acquired a large property in Perlach and built an administration and research centre here, advised by the architectural association van den Broek en Bakema from Rotterdam. The new Siemens buildings were characterized by maximum functionality and a possible multiple use. The orientation towards technical functions is reflected in the colour scheme of the architecture (white for facades, yellow for communication, red for all technical areas, blue for ventilation and air conditioning). [13] The designs for Bakema's Siemens Research Center were illustrated in the exhibition rooms of Kunstverein München by original plans and drawings. However, James Stirling's bold design for the Siemens AG Research Center was not realized. [14]
In view of the equally white architecture of Neuperlach (based on Caspar David Friedrich's painting "Das Eismeer", 1823/24), it is obvious why Siemens AG was unable and unwilling to erect any symbolic architecture in the neighborhood. [15]
In 1968, BMW AG announced a restricted architectural competition for the construction of a new administrative centre in the north of Munich. The Viennese architect Karl Schwanzer finally prevailed with his design of four interlocking circles. The striking "four-cylinder" form was created in 22-fold storey sequence, making the building an urban landmark and an example of a Speaking Architecture. The advantages mentioned were the all-round orientation of the building, its integration into the Olympic landscape and the connection to the Mittlere Ring. At the same time, the adjacent company museum was also built.
The museum's programme is described in the company's 1972 brochure as follows: "In conjunction with the education centre, the museum will become a focal point of BMW's public relations programme and thus an essential factor in education and advertising". [16]
For large companies, their buildings are also always image vehicles and to this day an important component of corporate identity. Architecture always serves both the use and the representation. [17]
With the realisation of major architectural projects and the development of corporate identity, utopia as a dispositive of practice has gradually disappeared from the focus of designers, architects and artists. Their traces in the complex interlocking fields of the social, cultural and economic upheaval of the 1960s are today almost only recognizable in the expanded corporate structures. [18]
The exhibition The Utopia of Design at Kunstverein München attempted to reconstruct these connections critically and in a current context of the 1990s. A comprehensive picture of the social upheaval of the 1960s and early 1970s, which also fundamentally changed the social field of art, was developed in collective collaboration with a project group of the Academie of the Visual Arts, Munich under Holger Weh and a theoretical examination in the form of a catalogue.
Text: Theresa Bauernfeind
Research: Theresa Bauernfeind
Translation and Editing: Theresa Bauernfeind, Post Brothers and Christina Maria Ruederer
If you have any questions or suggestions please contact us via archiv@kunstverein-muenchen.de.
[1] cf. Flyer of the exhibition „The Utopia of Design“, Kunstverein München e.V., Munich 1994.
[2] cf. Birkigt, Klaus; Stadler, Marinus: Corporate Identity, Landsberg am Lech 1988.
[3] Otl Aicher: Die Welt als Entwurf, Berlin 1991.
[4] cf. Klein, Jochen: Corporate Design, Identity and Culture in: Exh. Cat. Die Utopie des Designs, Kunstverein München
e.V., Munich 1994 (translated by Kunstverein München).
[5] cf. Bürdek, Bernhard: Design. Geschichte, Theorie und
Praxis der Produktgestaltung, Basel 2005.
[6] cf. Kiessling, Waldemar; Babel, Florian: Corporate Identity. Strategie nachhaltiger Unternehmensführung, Regensburg 2010.
[7] Birkigt und Stadler 1988, S. 23. (There is a great variety and different emphasis in the literature on the definition of corporate identity.)
[8] cf. Klein, Jochen: Corporate Design, Identity and Culture in: Exh. Cat. Die Utopie des Designs, Kunstverein München e.V., Munich 1994.
[9] cf: Draxler, Helmut: Die Utopie des Designs in: Exh. Cat. Die Utopie des Designs, Kunstverein München e.V., Munich 1994.
[10] Horkheimer, Max; Adorno, Theodor: Dialektik der Aufklärung, Frankfurt am Main 1972 (translated by Kunstverein München).
[11] cf. Flyer of the exhibition „The Utopia of Design“, Kunstverein München e.V., Munich 1994.
[12] cf: Draxler, Helmut: Die Utopie des Designs in: Exh. Cat. Die Utopie des Designs, Kunstverein München e.V., Munich 1994.
[13] cf: Weh, Holger: Bunte Welten in: Exh. Cat. Die Utopie
des Designs, Kunstverein München e.V., Munich 1994. [14] cf. Ibid.
[15] cf. Ibid.
[16] cf.: Draxler, Helmut: Höchstleistungsdesign in: Exh.
Cat. Die Utopie des Designs, Kunstverein München e.V., Munich 1994.
[17] cf.: Weh, Holger: Bunte Welten in: Exh. Cat. Die Utopie des Designs, Kunstverein München e.V., Munich 1994.
[18] cf.: Draxler, Helmut: Die Utopie des Designs in: Exh. Cat. Die Utopie des Designs, Kunstverein München e.V., Munich 1994.
All Fig.:
Die Utopie des Designs, 1994. Exhibition Catalogue Kunstverein München e.V., 1994. Courtesy Kunstverein München e.V.