Rajesh Punjabi GR616 Influences Otl Aicher In the small town of Ulm in Germany, Otl Aicher was born

on May 13th, in 1922. Despite growing up in Germany, Aicher was opposed to the Nazi movement and refused to join the Hitler Youth in 1937. As a result, he was arrested and failed on his college entrance exam in 1941. He was drafted into the German Army in during WWII, fighting for Germany even though he did not favor the Nazi party. Aicher deserted the army in 1945 and moved to Munich to study sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich in 1946. After completing his studies he opened a studio in Ulm. In 1952 Otl Aicher was married to Inge Scholl. The following year the couple, along with Max Bill, founded the Ulm School of Design. During this time Aicher built his reputation on corporate branding and logo designs. Aicher designed the logo for Lufthansa, a German airline, in 1969 (Figure 8.1). He went on to be the lead designer for the Munich Olympics in 1972. His stick figure based creations provided pictograms in which athletes and visitors could be directed by an images that represented the event or sport (Figure 8.2). He also worked on the design of the logo for the Munich Olympics along with Coordt Von Mannstein. Aicher created the first Olympic mascot named Waldi, which was a common German dog breed (Figures 8.3 & 8.4). The design team he led created 21 posters to promote and advertise the games (Figure 8.5). Otl Aicher was hired as a consultant for the kitchen company bulthaup in 1980. He released several books while consulting including The Kitchen is for Cooking in 1982, Critique of the Automobile in 1984, and Inside the War in 1985. The Rotis font family was created by Aicher in 1988 and designed the logo for the Munich Airport (Figures 8.6). After injuries sustained from a traffic accident, Aicher died on September 1st in 1991.

Figure 8.1 Figure 8.2 Figure 8.3 Figure 8.4 Figure 8.5 Figure 8.6

[Pg 2, Top] Lufthansa Logo. 1969. Otl Aicher. [Pg 2, Center] Munich Olympic Pictograms. 1972. Otl Aicher. [Pg 2, Bottom Left] Munich Olympics Logo. 1972. Otl Aicher. [Pg 2, Bottom Right] Waldi (Munich Olympics Mascot). 1972. Otl Aicher. [Pg 3, Top] Munich Olympics Posters. 1972. Otl Aicher. [Pg 3, Bottom] Rotis Font. 1988. Otl Aicher.