Max Huber

1. What it is — a sheet from the graphic portfolio of the Allianz group, from the time of his return to Switzerland. The portfolio has ten sheets: four woodcuts, four linocuts and two lithographs (MoMA). This sheet is a lithograph. Abstract work, not a commission.
2. Composition — reading of the work: six to seven small shapes are scattered across an empty field. All are variations on the same vocabulary: a circle with an inscribed spindle-like shape (resembling an eye, a lens or a propeller), in various sizes and rotations. A single thin vertical line runs through the right third, gathering them together. There is no centre and no hierarchy. This is a catalogue of instances of one rule, not a composition with a focal point. About 80% of the field is empty.
3. Colour — reading of the work: no colour — a grey graphite tone on warm paper. The shapes are modelled with a soft tonal gradient through the middle, so they look as if they are spinning, even though nothing is drawn in motion. Everything that will be in colour at Monza in 1948 already exists here.
4. Typography — none; only a signature and an edition number in pencil.
5. Message — there is no message; this is an exercise in visual language. But his entire later loud commercial graphic design stands on this grammar. Without this period the Monza posters would have been merely colourful.
6. Why exactly this way — the war, coming home, no commercial work. Downtime used to develop a language.
7. What would kill it — nothing; this is a study. The more interesting question is what would have happened without it.

Principles: Variations on one rule Gradient suggests rotation There is no grid here and no chaos — just scattered variations of one shape on emptiness.

1. What it is — the poster "ottava Triennale di Milano" for the exhibition at the Palazzo dell'Arte, opened 31 May 1947. His first major public job after returning to Milan. AGI attributes the poster to Huber. Note on sources: for the overall graphic design of the Triennale, the m.a.x. museo cites collaboration with Albe Steiner, while the Italian Wikipedia cites Ezio Bonini.
2. Composition — reading of the work: a landscape format split into two fields. On the left is a red field (~70%), on the right a white vertical strip with a row of flags of the participating countries. The exhibition is international, so the flags are a list of participants, not decoration. Over the red sits an enormous white "T8" (Triennale 8) spanning the full height. The inner openings of the eight (counterforms — the empty space inside a letter) are red: the letter is cut out of the field. A single horizontal line of text "ottava Triennale di Milano" cuts across both fields and binds them. "palazzo dell'arte" and "1947" bottom right cross the red/white boundary. A black rectangle bottom left carries "inaugurazione 31 maggio" in red — the only place where the colours are reversed.
3. Colour — reading of the work + measurement: red 44%, white 40%, black 9%, with tiny blue, yellow and red flags. Three colours, no overprinting, solid fields. The other colours are carried by the flags on the right anyway.
4. Typography — reading of the work: grotesque (sans serif) (a typeface without serifs, i.e. without "feet" at the ends of strokes), all lowercase except the year. The headline is bold and large; the four-line subhead is small and left-aligned. "T8" is drawn, geometric. Specific typeface not confirmed.
5. Message — postwar Italy presents itself as a modern country. The graphic design is part of that claim, not decoration attached to it.
6. Why exactly this way — the landscape format and the split into field and strip give two contents on one surface: the event itself (red, T8) and internationality (white, flags). One line of headline joins them. Without it, this would be two posters.
7. What would kill it — flags scattered across the red. The division would disappear, and the colourful flags would swallow the "T8". The flags work only because they are contained within their own strip.

Principles: Grid holds chaos (two fields + one line that binds them)

1. What it is — documented (AIAP, Collezione Max Huber): poster for the race of 17 October 1948 at the Monza racetrack. Client is Automobile Club Milano, original format 100 × 140 cm, printed by N. Moneta, Milano. The poster is also tied to Lotteria Italia — at the bottom it reads „abbinato alla Lotteria Italia“. There is also a 1968 reprint (Arti Grafiche Nava / edizioni 2dimensioni, 49 × 69,5 cm, four colours) — watch which copy you're looking at.
2. Composition — reading of the work + analysis (fontanesi.ch): no object is depicted — no car, no crowd, no chequered flag. Everything is abstract. The base is an ellipse tilted at 45° (the track seen in perspective) and a bundle of straight lines from two different vanishing points. The vanishing point is the point at which parallel lines meet when drawn in perspective. A large red arrow shape cuts across the left half and pulls the eye rightward and downward. Key observation from the analysis: the direction of rotation is opposite to natural left-to-right reading. So the arrows, by their weight, push the eye down the descending diagonal. The text sits on the same perspective lines. Below are grey-blue track bands, an olive-yellow wedge bottom right and a small stamp. The whole geometry was drawn by hand — in 1948 there was no other way.
3. Colour — reading of the work: transparent overlaps. Green letters, red arrow, blue-grey track, olive-yellow field; where the planes cross, a new colour is born. The analysis says the overlap and transparency give a sense of transient phenomena and great speed. In other words, colour here does what motion blur would otherwise do. On the Borsalino poster (1949) the same procedure is carried out on three primary colours — a textbook example of subtractive synthesis: transparent colours on paper subtract light from one another, so their intersection yields a new, darker colour. Note on sources: two available reproductions disagree — in one the letter colour is green, in the other dark brown. It's possible one of them is the 1968 reprint.
4. Typography — reading of the work: „Gran premio dell'Autodromo“ is drawn lettering (not typeset) in strong perspective, with two separate vanishing points. The words don't sit on a single plane, they flee in two directions. „Monza“ sits bottom left, blue-grey, in a third corner; „17 ottobre 1948“ small and red along the slant. Nothing is set from an existing typeface — everything is constructed. Specific typeface not confirmed.
5. Message — speed without a single car. In three seconds you see: something rushing and turning. The speed is carried by perspective, transparency and the opposing direction of rotation — not blur, not photography. It's a graphic solution to a problem that is otherwise photographic.
6. Why exactly this way — this is a printer's idea, not a draughtsman's: designed for colour on the press, not for a sketch on paper. The overlap is free; a fifth colour is not.
7. What would kill it — printing the colours opaque. The third colour disappears, the depth disappears, the focus disappears. What's left is a colourful poster.

Principles: Overlap gives a third colour The crossing is the focus Grid holds chaos Perspective with two vanishing points Rotation against the reading direction Speed here doesn't come from repeating an element with an offset (as in 08), but from perspective, transparency and the direction of rotation.

This is his benchmark — and the single most useful piece in the entire body of material for anyone working with overlap and layered colour. On fontanesi.ch there is also a ready-made analytical image: the poster with the vanishing points and the 45° ellipse marked in. It's the template for the skeleton in the exercise „Rebuilding the benchmark“.

1. What it is — poster for the seventh CIAM congress (Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne — International Congress of Modern Architecture) in Bergamo. Offset lithograph (industrial printing: a plate transfers ink to a rubber cylinder, and the cylinder to the paper), 47.3 × 66.4 cm, printed by S.E.S.A., Bergamo (MoMA 622.1981, gift of the designer). Landscape format — rare for a poster and a decision in itself.
2. Composition — reading of the work: the whole surface is a field of vertical colour bands from top to bottom edge, of unequal width. They resemble a colour control strip — a row of patches at the edge of a printed sheet by which the printer checks the colours. Across the middle sits a black horizontal band (~40% of the height). In it, huge, in lowercase, is „ciam“. The letters aren't printed but cut out of the black, so the same bands as above and below show through them. The letter is a hole, not a shape. Top left is a large red „7“, top right four lines of title, bottom „bergamo“ and „palazzo della ragione“. Three horizontal bands (title / ciam / place) are crossed by verticals — the grid is visible to the naked eye.
3. Colour — reading of the work: the ground is a warm tone, close to brown kraft paper. The bands are red, green, orange and black. There's no overlap as in Monza — here colour works in sequence, not in crossing. The only „third colour“ is the paper left between the bands. Warm and cool alternate and give a rhythm without a single ornament.
4. Typography — reading of the work: heavy grotesque (sans serif), all lowercase (both the title and „ciam“), except for the number 7. „ciam“ takes up about 35% of the poster's height. The number and the word carry the poster; the rest is small and left-aligned against the bands. Specific typeface not confirmed.
5. Message — a congress of architects, so a document of the profession, not an advert. The vertical bands are nonetheless façade, column, grid — architecture shown as the rhythm of supporting elements, without a single building. Analogy, not illustration.
6. Why exactly this way — small format, small printer, few colours. The bands are the cheapest possible print: solid fields, no halftone (the small dots by which print achieves tones) and no fine colour registration. The effect is nonetheless maximal. A letter cut from the black costs nothing extra. Again, a printer's idea: the solution is derived from what the machine does easily.
7. What would kill it — a photograph of the building. Or: „ciam“ printed white over the black band instead of cut out. The link between letter and background disappears, and the poster falls apart into an image and a caption.

Principles: Grid holds chaos Letter as window Analogy instead of illustration Colour stripes as the motif Note on sources: from the reproduction it's not clear whether the warm ground is the colour of the paper or printed colour.

1. What it is — visual identity (system of mark, colour and lettering by which a firm is recognised) of Milan's largest department store. The la Rinascente logotype is his. According to the store's official archive, that mark shaped how the public experienced the store (Archivio Max e Aoi Huber). The archive holds six posters, packaging paper and a catalogue. A rare case: an avant-garde designer working for mass retail. Other authors work for the store in parallel (e.g. Lora Lamm); the archive keeps their work separately.
2. Composition — reading of the work, on three dated examples: - „lR“ wrapping paper (1950) — monogram R in two sizes and two colours, rotated 180° in every second row, with a small „la Rinascente“ signature that runs now upright, now upside down. The mark isn't placed on the paper — the mark is the paper, as a repeating pattern, not as a stamp. - „Coppa la Rinascente-Upim“ (1952) — two cyclists, red and blue, as flat silhouettes on a green field. Sport is depicted through team colours, not the race. - „XXXI Fiera di Milano — benvenuti“ (1953) — yellow field, coloured circular segments (fan or wheel) and a diagonal title.
3. Colour — reading of the work + measurement: bright, solid, unmixed colours. In the „lR“ paper (1950) these are grey ground, red and yellow; the 1952–53 posters add green and blue. There's no overlap as in Monza — the department store wants cheerfulness and visibility, not depth. Same author, different tool.
4. Typography — reading of the work: on the posters, hand-drawn, slanted and playful lettering; the mark is a single letter (R) as a shape for repetition. Specific typeface not confirmed.
5. Message — the department store wants to look modern and cheerful at the same time. That demand kills most systems: modernity pushes toward severity, cheerfulness toward decoration.
6. Why exactly this way — Italy 1950: consumption is just waking up, and retail wants to look like the future. Hence the freedom that an American client would rarely have granted at the time.
7. What would kill it — a consistent, cold system without play. The identity would be correct and unmemorable.

Principles: Mark as a pattern Flat colour reads at distance Series as identity There are no secondary colours or crossings here — that's Monza, not Rinascente. The method of one job shouldn't be attributed to every job of his.

1. What it is — creative director at Giulio Einaudi's, the most serious Italian publisher. A different tone: quiet and strict. Example with record: Giambattista Vico, Autobiografia, Universale Einaudi no. 55, 1947 — softcover, 240 pp., 11.8 × 18 cm. The graphic solution (progetto grafico) is Huber's, cover drawing by Franco Francese (AIAP, CMH-CVI047). Important: Huber builds a series system (books of the same look), and commissions the drawing from someone else. This is editorial, not illustrative authorship.
2. Composition — reading of the work: upright pocket format. The drawing field takes up the top two-thirds and is framed. The series name "UNIVERSALE" runs vertically along the left edge, "EINAUDI" along the right — two verticals hold the page like columns. Author and title sit horizontally at the top. The same frame works for any drawing and any title: the grid is the series, the content is variable.
3. Colour — reading of the work: one background colour (here a warm pinkish-red), black typography and drawing. Only the background colour changes across the series. That's the cheapest way for every book to have its own face while the series stays a series.
4. Typography — reading of the work: classicist roman (a serif typeface with strong contrast between thick and thin strokes) in a small size; capitals for the series and publisher names. Everything is calm and symmetric — the opposite tone from Monza, from the same years. The specific typeface is not named.
5. Message — serious literature; the design must not shout.
6. Why exactly this way — a book series, many titles, small budget per unit → a system is the only way. Same problem as Lustig's New Classics, solved more strictly.
7. What would kill it — designing every book separately. The series would disappear.

Principles: Series as identity The frame is the series, the content changes Identity is a manual He also worked on De Agostini's "Il timone" series (1962–66); it is entirely in the AIAP collection.

1. What it is — exhibition designs for RAI, ENI and Montecatini and several exhibitions about radio. Collaborators are Achille Castiglioni and Erberto Carboni (Italian Wikipedia). AGI states he collaborated with Achille Castiglioni for his whole life.
2. Composition — no photograph of the installation was found, so it is not described here.
3. Colour — no photograph; not described.
4. Typography — no photograph; not described.
5. Message — industry presents itself as modern. The visitor learns while moving through the space, not by reading.
6. Why exactly this way — in an installation the viewer walks through the composition. The graphics therefore have to work at three distances: across the hall, from three metres, and from half a metre.
7. What would kill it — the logic of a poster carried over 1:1 onto a wall. Not just the format changes, but also the order of reading.

Principles: Grid holds chaos Speed is repetition and shift

1. What it is — a poster for a lottery tied to a race in Monza, 21 June 1970, at 15:30. Offset lithograph, 79.5 × 67.2 cm (MoMA 482.1987, gift of the designer). MoMA showed it at the exhibition "50 Years of Helvetica" (2007–08). The typeface is thus Helvetica or very close to it; the specific typeface is nonetheless not claimed without confirmation.
2. Composition — reading of the work: landscape format. A bundle of wide diagonal bands (red, blue, yellow, green, grey) runs from lower left toward upper right, like a track or trail. Over them is "Monza" in enormous grey grotesque, in perspective — the word narrows to the right as if fleeing into the distance. Below, along the same slant, "12° gran premio" and "della Lotteria di Monza" in white. Everything is tilted at the same angle (~20°); nothing is horizontal. There's no single focal point — the whole surface moves.
3. Colour — reading of the work + measurement: the background is silvery grey (~55% of the surface, likely a metallic ink). The bands are red, blue, yellow (ochre in reproduction) and green. The letters "Monza" are light and partially transparent — through the M and o you can see the yellow and blue bands. Overlap does exist, then, but it is letter over band, not colour over colour as in 1948. Speed here is carried by position and perspective; overlap is secondary.
4. Typography — reading of the work: neutral grotesque, deformed by perspective — not drawn, but placed in space. Three size levels, all three on the same slant.
5. Message — race and lottery on the same poster: two contents, one surface.
6. Why exactly this way — in 1970 offset is standard, colours are cheaper, and Helvetica is the international norm. It's interesting how much of his loudness survives within that frame.
7. What would kill it — total compliance with the norm. If the 1970 poster is merely tidy, it has lost what made it matter in 1948.

Principles: Speed is repetition and shift Overlap gives a third colour Compare it directly with the 1948 poster: that comparison is a ready-made lesson in what the norm does to an author's language.