“Improve the State of the World: Rethink, Redesign, Rebuild” is the theme of this year’s World Economic Forum, currently taking place in Davos, Switzerland.
I think that anyone who has ever worked at a publication might understand why the thought of 2,000 business leaders and politicians getting the directive to “redesign” has me feeling a bit queasy.
Anyway, I figure it’s as good an excuse as any for showing some vintage Swiss design.
L. Gensetter, c. 1970 
Charles Kuhn, 1941
Clockwise, starting upper left: Martin Peikert; Anonymous, c. 1960; Kurtz, c. 1940; Herbert Leupin, 1956; Herbert Leupin 1958; Otto Morach, 1929
These travel brochures for Davos are from the 1930s. They are mostly from David Levine’s
wonderful site, filled with travel ephemera. I can so relate to how he describes the origin of his collecting habit; “I took the red pill, fell down the rabbit hole, and got stuck in Wonderland, and started collecting travel ephemera….”
The brochure with the angled, red block type on the blue and gray background from 1933 (right, of the trio below), is from the terrific
site of Felix Wiedler.
Nowhere have I seen any mention of the script writing of “Davos” which recurs fairly consistently throughout almost like a logo.
Click on the links to see info and scans of each brochure in its entirety.
Left to right: c. 1936
(details), c. 1937
(details), c. 1933
(details)
c. 1933 uncredited design is very Herbert Matter.
details for the two pages above, here
Loved this little infographic inside the
above brochure, comparing amount of sunshine in Davos to London and Berlin.
