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Karl Gerstner archive

Karl Gerstner (1930–2017) was one of the most important exponents of Swiss typography and is known for his work as a graphic designer and artist.

Karl Gerstner was born in Basel in 1930. He completed a graphic design apprenticeship before taking photography lessons at the Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Arts and Crafts) in Zurich. He set up his own graphic design studio in 1949 and was soon being commissioned to produce work for Ciba-Geigy. There, he met Markus Kutter with whom he went on to establish the advertising agency Gerstner + Kutter in 1959. They were joined by Paul Gredinger in 1962 and the agency was renamed GGK (Gerstner, Gredinger, Kutter). Over the next few years, GGK became one of the most successful advertising agencies in Switzerland, with offices in other European countries and in the US. Besides the many commissions he worked on for GGK, Karl Gerstner also designed typefaces and worked as an artist. From 1970 he stepped back from the operational business of GGK to focus on his art.

In 2006, Gerstner donated his private archive to the Swiss National Library’s Prints and Drawings Department, where all the archive holdings on his work as a designer have since been held. The extensive documentation on individual projects allows us to comprehend the entire process from the initial design stage to the definitive design solution.

Content and scope

Advertising campaigns, including designs and preliminary work for various GGK clients, such as Swissair, IBM, Shell, VW, Ringier, Capital, etc.
Designs for the typefaces Gerstner Programm and Gerstner Original
GGK annual reports, manuals and magazines
A small selection of paper artworks and a large number of preparatory digital prints for artworks and artists’ books
An extensive collection of colour charts (colour organs) which Karl Gerstner used as a basis for his artworks
Various publications, as well as preparatory materials, annotated test prints and layout documents
Presentations and texts by Karl Gerstner
Correspondence, personal documents, patents and awards
A specialist library
Photo documentation of his oeuvre