Poster exhibition

Since the 1800s, adventurous travelers have made the journey through the verdant alpine slopes and forested hills of the  Lauterbrunnen valley to the higher villages of Mürren and Wengen and on to the glorious natural wonders of the glaciers and peaks. Mürren’s and Wengen’s earliest tourism posters – which followed the French trends of the time – enticed the visitor to the area by use of illustrated montages of pristine landscape panoramas and villages showing «typical and interesting» cultural motifs. Mountains, local costumes, agriculture and architecture were represented by naturalistically detailed images using vivid colouring. The following  generation of Swiss designers would bring their own innovative styles to tourism posters.

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While early posters focused on ease of travel through charming villages, later posters would highlight the delights and activities offered by individual destinations. Gone were the multi-image montages of villages, replaced by human figures as heroic protagonists. In many posters, travelers are seemingly alone in treacherous environs, implying high altitude adventure is now attainable by all. A new innovative Swiss poster style would receive international recognition. Ferdinand Hodler (1853–1918) would use a modernist influenced palette, reduced images, and a calligraphic handling of outlines which, in turn, influenced many contemporary artists. In the 1930s, surrealistic photomontages and collages, would create a modernist image of Switzerland.

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While Leslie Stephen’s book: «The Playground of Europe» (1871), promoted the Swiss Alps as a sports «playground» to international tourists, the fin-de-siècle, «Grand Hotels» focused on providing luxurious comfort and entertainment for their guests. In the 1930s public swimming pools were built in an attempt to make the warmer months more attractive and to redirect the vacationers’ focus away from seaside resorts. Whereas, the innovations of designers such as Emil Cardinaux, Ernst Otto and Klara Borter would show the influence of Hodler with cheerful and colorful summer scenes, the avant-gardist Herbert Matter would profile his individualistic modernist style by producing complex photomontages.

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With the economic challenges during and between the World Wars, the Swiss National Tourist Office would launch campaigns designed to motivate financially capable civilians, to engage in healthy outdoor activities. Implying that by doing so, the population would be:  Bracing itself for deprivation, preparing to defend the homeland, as well as, making use of the underutilised tourism infrastructures. War time slogans were colourful and to the point: In 1940: «Join us for a winter holiday», «Healthy youth, strong people through winter sports» and in 1941: «Inner strength through winter vacations». Trained designers from the long established Swiss applied arts schools would profile Switzerland as an international leader in poster design.

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Initially, only a minority of Swiss participated in mountain sports and vacations as the concept of «holidays» presupposes worker’s free time and financial means. To make vacations in the mountain resorts affordable for all, campaigns were launched by private and public enterprises emphasising affordability. In 1934, the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) produced posters with offers of: «Special reduction on Swiss tickets: Swiss Ski Schools everywhere.» In 1938, Hotelplan, would offer affordable «all-inclusive» vacation packages. Reiterating his 1940s «mountain offensive», Swiss Transport Minister Enrico Celio, called on the nation to: «Take a vacation! Create work! With vacation vouchers», refocusing the marketing message on affordable holidays.

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