Session 6 : Ulm (Ott Aicher)

Otl Aicher was a German Typographer and Graphic Designer as well as being the co-founder of the Ulm Design school. Aicher was born May 13 in 1922 in Ulm in the state of Baden-Wurttemberg. When the war ended in 1946 Otl Aicher joined the Academy of fine Arts in Munich where he studied sculpture, then after a year he had opened his own studio in Ulm. Aicher had married one of his friends sisters, Inge Scholl. Then he had created the Ulm School of Design with his wife, Inge Scholl, and Max Bill. This school was the largest and most successful art schools in Germany up until it closed in 1968.
 
One of Aichers main focuses was corporate branding. In 1972 he was asked by the organizers of the Olympics to become the lead designer for the 1972 summer Olympics. For this project Aicher had based his work around previously employed iconography as well as creating a set of iconic pictograms with the purpose of presenting a simple visual interpretation of the sports the stadium featured. This also had a practical reading too allowing athletes and visitors to easily find their way around the stadium with the use of the universally known iconography.
 
Aichers style had become very well-known and the same style was used in 1974 by the United States Department of transportation in which they designed and developed the DOT pictograms. Then the signage style had become identifiable globally and is still seen today such as signs for toilets, telephones and other features. Aicher had also became creditable for creating the first Olympic mascot, which was a dachshund.
 
Some other work Aicher had created was the logo for the Munich airport which features a simple ‘M’ in a sans serif font. Aicher also created and developed the Rotis font family in 1988.