What’s become of Otl Aicher’s former abode? A visit to the Allgäu.

What’s become of Otl Aicher’s former abode? A visit to the Allgäu.
Technology: a central notion and fixed point of perspective in the work of Otl Aicher.
The British architect Norman Foster on his friendship with Otl Aicher: He had absolute integrity.
Thoughts on the colour palettes of Otl Aicher.
Absolute sharpness, reduction and strict rules determine the character of his pictures: Otl Aicher as photographer.
Under Otl Aicher’s direction, designers, architects and landscape planners shaped the face of the Olympic Games 1972.
Interviewed: Erik Spiekermann, type designer, author and Aicher critic.
Inge Aicher-Scholl preserved the legacy of the White Rose.
An interview with design icon Stefan Sagmeister about typefaces, beauty and the legacy of Otl Aicher.
The International Design Center Berlin (IDZ) invites you to a slide show and panel talk at Architektur Galerie Berlin on 20 October. Karsten de Riese and Prof. Michael Klar will report on a photo reportage commissioned by BMW that took them to Tunisia in 1975 together...
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the 1972 Olympic Games, the IDZ invites you to a discussion on the vision of the Munich Games and the status quo as well as the future of the Olympic movement on 26 August. The event at Berlin’s Akademie der Künste on Pariser...
Isny im Allgäu owes Otl Aicher a corporate design that is concise, bold and singular.
With a retrospective of Otl Aicher’s book “kritik am auto – schwierige verteidigung des autos gegen seine anbeter” (Criticism of the Car – Difficult Defence of the Car against its Worshippers) published in 1984, the IDZ continues its series of events on the “otl...
Today marks the centenary of Otl Aicher’s birth. The International Design Center Berlin (IDZ) is taking this date as an opportunity to pay tribute to this great designer. With otlaicher100.de, a new online platform is being launched – a curated space that provides...
Reflections on Inge Aicher-Scholl and Otl Aicher.
The International Design Center Berlin (IDZ) is taking Otl Aicher’s centenary as an opportunity to pay tribute to this great designer and to make his work visible. An online platform and a series of events will address Otl Aicher’s multifaceted cosmos of topics and...
Vom Zuschnitt des Dirndls der Hostessen über die Gestaltung der Programmhefte und Plakate bis hin zu den Entwürfen von Piktogrammen und Parkscheinen: Aichers Gestaltungsrichtlinien mit dem Regenbogen als Farbpalette und einem bunten Dackel …
They created the signature of an epoch: designers Otl Aicher, Willy Fleckhaus, Anton Stankowski and Kurt Weidemann.
Otl Aicher’s Poster displays for the Ulmer Volkshochschule (Ulm Adult Education Centre).
From O to R: Let’s talk about a hedgehog, standardisation and neurotis for a change (please click on the letters).
Otl Aicher’s Dept. XI team: the visual identity of the Munich ’72 Olympics was the work of graphic designers, illustrators and technical staff from all over the world.
Aicher’s childhood and youth: the years 1922 to 1945.
Otl Aicher’s signage systems for airports, metro stations and hospitals are considered exemplary to this day.
Der einstige Braun-Chef-Designer im Gespräch über den Co-Gründer der HfG.
A Broadcast: What is his place in today’s world?
The Aichers: a brief family history.
Drawing in Rotis: former Aicher co-worker Reinfriede Bettrich talks about hand sketches, the first computers and everyday life at the office.
How Otl Aicher’s papers and materials came to the HfG-Archiv/Museum Ulm.
Die Küche zum Kochen (The Kitchen for Cooking) – the genesis of a book that has lost none of its relevance.
How a dachshund conquered the world: former Aicher staff member Elena Schwaiger on plush animals, fakes and the authentic mascot of the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich.
Le Violon d’Ingres or An Attempt to Defend the Writings of Otl Aicher.
Otl Aicher as the architect of Rotis.
Otl Aicher and his critique of the automobile.
First broadcast: 15.02.1971 on Bayerischer Rundfunk, Munich (Only available in German).
Interviewed: Jürgen Werner Braun on his collaboration with Otl Aicher.
The designers of the British-German office Brighten the Corners, Frank Philippin and Billy Kiosoglou, have deliberately avoided a portrait image. They have little in mind with conventions and feel in agreement with the honoured, who formulated: “a graphic designer is a graphic designer, he is what he can do”. Thus their stamp is adorned with the word “graphic artist”, one of Otl Aicher’s many self-chosen professions, in addition to his name and life data. A profession with which he achieved his international breakthrough as design commissioner for the 1972 Olympic Games. The colour scheme and use of space are reminiscent of the title page of the “Guidelines and Standards for Visual Design” for the XX Olympiad and rules that Aicher developed with his team. The value of the postage stamp is currently sufficient to frank a large letter. The now obligatory 2D matrix code reduces the freely designable area of each stamp. At the same time, it makes franking by postmark practically superfluous, since scanning the stamp detects whether it has already been “used” or not. For collectors – and not only of stamps – Swiss Post also offers a multi-page remembrance sheet in its online shop to mark the 100th anniversary of Otl Aicher’s birth. At a price of 6.95 euros, it contains some photos and texts on his life and work. In addition to that two of the stamps are provided with the Berlin first-day postmark, which was also designed by Brighten the Corners. kte
As part of its “memory games” series, the architecture magazine Detail is publishing a card set with 32 pairs of cards with pictograms. In this way, the long-established Munich-based trade magazine is honouring both Aicher’s centennial and the anniversary of the 1972 Olympic Games. Aicher’s pictograms played a key role in many of his subsequent projects; they are milestones in design history and icons of contemporary culture. The card set “Otl Aicher. Müchen 1972” unites 21 different sports of the Munich Games, like cycling, high jump, and archery, as pictograms and other pictograms that provided orientation on the grounds of the sporting event. The game is accompanied by an essay on the history of pictograms. kte
Sandra Hofmeister (ed.): Otl Aicher. München 1972. Kartenset, ISBN 978-3-95553-580-3, Detail, magazine for architecture, 29.90 euros.
Cheerful colors, spectacular tent rooftops and an endearing mascot: this is how the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich will be remembered. But also this: an assassination attempt on the Israeli athletes, in which a policeman and eleven athletes lost their lives, are burned into the memory. This year, the 50th anniversary of the Olympic Games will be celebrated in Munich. Throughout the year, under the motto “Munich on the Way to the Future 1972-2022-2072”, there will be exhibitions and events in the city on the topics of sport, culture, design, architecture, culture of remembrance and togetherness in democracy – in public and digital space. To mark the anniversary, the Olympic Village and the Olympic Press City will be celebrating a week of festivities from Friday, 13 May, to Sunday, 22 May.
On the occasion of the 100th birthday of the designer who was so important for Isny, a lot is happening in the town – even far away from the “aichermagazin” in the Kurpark, which opens on 21 May. In the gallery under the arcades in the Amtshaus on Bergtorsraße, works by pupils of the Isny secondary school who have dealt with the idea of pictorial signage have been on display since the beginning of May. Thirteen picture frames adorn the art window under the arcades at the corner of Bergtorstraße and Kanzleistraße – a “small exhibition” that art teacher Matthias Baader and his students from grades five to eight of the Isny secondary school are proud of. In art lessons in February, they spent several school hours approaching the designer Otl Aicher and the image he once developed for Isny and intensively studied Aicher’s visual language. “Our students dealt with the exciting cosmos of Otl Aicher with a lot of enthusiasm and creative joy,” says Baader. From the students’ point of view, Aicher was not only significant for Isny and the region, but also shaped visual communication like hardly any other creative artist in the world, and “still does”.
The exhibition will be on display under the arcades for about two months. Matthias Baader concludes that the project has “provided young people with an original approach to Otl Aicher’s thinking and doing in an exciting way”.
Contact: Gymnasium Isny Rainstraße 27, 88316 Isny im Allgäu, telephone: 07562 975650.
On the occasion of Aicher’s birthday, the otl aicher rotis e. v. is promoting written works by students or young designers dedicated to the life and work of Otl Aicher. The submitted works should have something to do with Aicher’s oeuvre, deal with an aspect of his works or with a part of his biography. The aim is also to bring to light new topics, rarely considered aspects of his life and work. If the quality and scope are sufficient, the first-placed work will be published; places 1 to 3 will be awarded cash prizes of 5,000 euros, 2,500 euros and 1,000 euros.
Submissions are welcome until 31 January 2023. The jury will evaluate the work by the summer of 2023. The winners will be notified.
Please send digital submissions by e-mail to Manuel Aicher of otl aicher rotis e. v. aicher[at]aicherweb.com.
In the 1970s, Otl Aicher set an example of modern town advertising with the image for Isny in the Allgäu: with black lines and geometric shapes on a white background, in an almost square frame, 136 pictorial symbols were created that communicate the complexity of the town and the region. Today they are an important part of the town’s design. “What Aicher created for Isny is of priceless value,” emphasises Rainer Magenreuter, mayor of the small town in the Allgäu. For Aicher’s 100th birthday, Isny is therefore presenting itself in the light of the image he created. Not only design enthusiasts, art lovers and graphic experts are invited to the anniversary, but also citizens, friends and visitors of the region. In the temporary exhibition building in the middle of Isny’s Kurpark, visitors will meet Otl Aicher and the town of Rotis, where he worked and lived for a long time. Along the original pictorial signs, they encounter Aicher’s Isny. The curators Monika Schnell, former employee in Aicher’s office in Rotis, and art historian Renate Breuss present the connection between the town and the designer: by using photographs and anecdotes, with the help of digitally accessible audio texts and also with the help of the atmosphere of the exhibition space, which opens up to the top. A comprehensive programme of events accompanies the anniversary from May to October. It stages what was important to Aicher and what is typical in Isny. Well-known Isny events such as the children’s festival and the popular regional markets are dotted with cross-references to the designer. Creative workshops, literary projects, performances, participatory events and guided tours of the town are based on the impressions Aicher once had of Isny: the appreciation of good food and fresh herbs – preferably from one’s own garden, the region’s nature and cultural landscape, tradition, good beer, music and much more.