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.
Interviewed: Erik Spiekermann, type designer, author and Aicher critic.
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.
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...
Eine Stadt leuchtet: Mit seinem farbenfrohen Erscheinungsbild der XX. Olympischen Sommerspiele 1972 setzte Otl Aicher ein Signal. Die junge Bundesrepublik war in der Moderne angekommen.
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...
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.
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).
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.
They created the signature of an epoch: designers Otl Aicher, Willy Fleckhaus, Anton Stankowski and Kurt Weidemann.
Florian Aicher
Architect
Florian Aicher (*1954) grew up on the campus of the Hochschule für Gestaltung Ulm. Studied architecture at the Staatsbauschule Stuttgart, internship in Buffalo/USA, then with Werner Wirsing, Munich. Self-employed from 1981; in addition to planning tasks, teaching at universities in Germany and Austria, most recently at the Carinthian University of Applied Sciences. Publications in international journals and books dealing with questions of building and craftsmanship. Based on the development in Vorarlberg, research on cultural conditions under which architecture succeeds.
Thomas Edelmann
Journalist & Curator
Thomas Edelmann (*1963) was co-founder of designreport in 1988, which he ran as editor-in-chief from 1996 to 2001. Since then he has worked as a freelance author and design expert. He writes for consumer and trade magazines and publishes online. He also conducts research on design and cultural history topics. Recent projects include the exhibition “100 Years of Steerable Light” about the history of individual workplace lighting – shown so far in Cologne, New York and Hamburg – and the podcast “designradio”.
Chup Friemert
Designer & Design Theorist
Chup Friemert (*1947) studied industrial design at the Stuttgart Academy, experimental environmental design at the SHfbK Braunschweig, philosophy and journalism at the FU Berlin. In more than 3 decades teaching in the field of design history(s) and design theory at the HfbK Hamburg, at the ISDI Havana and at the China Academy of Art Hangzhou. Publications on historical and contemporary objects of design and architecture.
Kai Gehrmann
Designer
Kai Gehrmann (*1972) is a designer and managing director of Stiehl/Over/Gehrmann with offices in Berlin and Osnabrück. He has been working in the fields of corporate identity / corporate design, user experience / user interface design and design strategy since 1994. With his team, he advises companies on the design of their analogue and digital brand communication. He is also responsible for the worldwide licensing and further development of the otl aicher pictograms.
Jasmin Jouhar
Art historian, journalist & moderator
Jasmin Jouhar (*1976) writes about architecture, interiors and design. Her clients include popular media such as the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as well as specialised publications such as Baunetz or the magazine form. She also advises companies in the design industry and supports them in their corporate publishing activities. Her current publications include a book on the FSB 1144 door handle by Jasper Morrison.
Katharina Kurz
Culture & Museum Theorist
Katharina Kurz (*1990) is a museum consultant at the Museumsverband für Nds./Bremen. Previously, she worked in the funding of the Volkswagen Foundation, at the Museum of Design Zurich and was responsible for the exhibition “Nicht mein Ding – Gender im Design” at the Museum Ulm / HfG-Archiv. She initiated the Designer in Residence programme of the HfG Archive, was a member of the research project “Exhibiting Design” and taught communication theory at the HfG Schwäbisch Gmünd.
Dagmar Rinker
Art historian & professor of design history
Dagmar Rinker (*1965) studied art history with a focus on design history at the LMU Munich, followed by a PhD and work at the Neue Sammlung Munich; from 1997 to 2012, she was head of the HfG archive in Ulm, where she was responsible for numerous exhibitions and publications. She was appointed professor of design at the HfG Schwäbisch-Gmünd in 2012.
Gerrit Terstiege
Journalist & Author
Gerrit Terstiege (*1968) studied at the KISD under Gui Bonsiepe and Aicher collaborator Heiner Jacob, and at the Glasgow School of Art. He was editor-in-chief of the design magazine form for many years. Terstiege conducted numerous interviews with graduates of the HfG Ulm, including Alexander Neumeister, Franco Clivio and Reinhold Weiss. Today he works as a consultant for design companies, teaches at Swiss and German universities and works as a journalist and copywriter in Freiburg and Mülheim/Ruhr. Terstiege writes regularly for magazines such as Art, Mint and Rolling Stone as well as for websites such as ndion.de and monopol-magazin.de. He is also the editor of the books “The Making of Design”, “Grafische Räume” and “Gestaltung denken” (together with Thomas Edelmann).
Fabian Wurm
Journalist & Book Author
Fabian Wurm (*1957) studied literature and sociology at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, wrote for the Frankfurter Rundschau, was editor of the magazines Design Report and Form as well as the newspaper Horizont. He works as a freelance journalist and book author in Frankfurt am Main.