Jamie Hill Ulm Blog

The Ulm School of Design was founded in 1953 by Inge Aicher-Scholl, Max Bill and OtLAicher. The
HfG building was designed by Max Bill and built in 1955.

Otto “Otl” Aicher was a German Typographer and Graphic Designer and was the co-founder of the
Ulm School of Design. In 1953, along with Max Bill and Inge Scholl, together they founded the School
of Design. Otl was influenced by the teachings of Josef Albers and connections with Ray and Charkes
Eames.

In 1966 Otl was given a job to be the lead designer of the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. He was
given a task to create designs that complimented the brand-new stadium. He created a series of
pictograms that visually represented the sport from sprinting, football, archery, Cycling, Rhythmic
Dancing etc.Otl also designed the logo of the Munich Olympics. He designed several stages with his
tea, before finally choosing the most visually pleasing emblem. The team created The Strahlenkranz,
a garland which represented both the sun and the five Olympic rings meshed in a spiral pattern.

The colours chosen for the designs were selected to represent the colour palette of the alps. Blue
and white, green, orange and silver, the colours were also utilised to identify specific themes such as
technical services, media, celebrity hospitality and public functions. The staff would also be
identified by wearing the same colour as the department their working in. Aicher utilised the
typeface Univers for the designs. He and his team formed 21 different sports posters to advertise the
sports at the games. The team used a technique known as posterization. Posterization is when you
take an image and convert the tones and colour into brighter and more saturated colours. Back then
this was done with photographic techniques to create posters. Nowadays it can be done digitally on
photoshop. The posters were put on display all around the city of Munich and around the sites of the
Olympic stadium.