The rise of the Swiss Style movement and its intersection with the Blockchain
Considered one of the most important art & design movements of the 20th century, the Swiss Style was first introduced in its early form in 1908.
Also referred to as the International Typographic Style, Swiss Style began to redefine how messages were conveyed through typography in the early 1920s in Germany, the Netherlands, and in Russia. With creative works becoming more collaborative, new experimental design styles were increasingly popular, where artists came together to convey different ideas that were considered objective, and free from the influence of associated meaning. At the heart of this movement was the Basel School of Design, where early concepts were adapted. Following its popularity among scholars, professor Ernst Keller began teaching a new graphic design and typography course at the University of Zurich in Switzerland, which encompassed a design philosophy that popularised the Swiss Style.
With new typographic styles finding their way into different industries, the movement grew in the 1950s, with sans-serif font families such as Univers becoming a defining step in making a uniform design widely adopted. With more than a century since its initial inception, Swiss Style has had a profound impact on modern art, leading to transformations in architecture, design, and crafts around the world.
Fast forward to 2021, and we find ourselves on the cusp of a new kind of movement that bridges the gap between art and technology like never before. Intersecting with the blockchain, a 21st-century typography movement is emerging, and with it, the rise of what’s being called the ‘Swiss Style’.
Inspired by the original movement, Swiss Style takes its fundamental ideas from combining art and functionality from a multitude of disciplines and perspectives while conveying information in a universally objective and straightforward manner. The language of art is now being re-defined in a new era where NFTs and the blockchain have emerged as a type of creation.
So how does this pairing actually work? The Swiss Style project is seeking to bring together artistic aesthetics under one roof, defining each NFT as a student, while the collector is considered the teacher. It is one of the first projects of its kind to use all the data that has been utilized on contracts as seeds in the formation of a new NFT. This means that each NFT that is passed on, is transformed, re-designed, and modified in an evolutionary step. As an interactive NFT, users can adapt and transform their artwork from the very beginning, allowing them to see how it could look before it is minted. The idea behind Swiss Style is to give the collector a new form of art that is constantly evolving and gets transformed every time it is passed on to each successor.
From its early 20th century origins, art and design have constantly been adapted by students and teachers throughout history. Swiss Style is the next evolutionary step that provides collectors with their own creator rights, empowering them to be part of a unique collaborative process. For artists and creators alike, this transition to the blockchain has brought many opportunities to create new inspiring digital forms of art that were not even conceivable in the past year.
Within the NFT framework, collectors are now able to retain their commercial rights and benefits from their minted artworks. For artists and collectors, this new modern approach could be the defining shift that sets the trend of collaborative art & design creation in the future.
What will be your artistic legacy?
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