Another great Swiss graphic designer. If one looks at all the great and famous names Huber encountered in his life it is no wonder that i admire this designer too. Some of my all time favorites like Castiglione, Bill and Graeser were among his friends and the Swiss school of design belongs together with the dutch designs from the Fifties and Sixities , in my opion, to the very best graphic design schools of all time.
Max Huber was born in Baar, Switzerland in 1919. He graduated from Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich under the name Hans Williman. In his formative years, he met Werner Bischof, Josef Müller-Brockmann, Carlo Vivarelli and Hans Falk.
His career began in 1935 in Zurich, where he worked for an advertising agency and later with Emil Schultness at Conzett&Huber. He met Max Bill and Hans Neuburg.
With the beginning of World War II – in order to avoid being drafted in the Swiss army – he moved to Milan to join Studio Boggeri. When Italy entered the war in 1941, Huber was forced to move back to Switzerland, where he began a collaboration with Werner Bischof and Emil Schultness for the influential art magazine Du.
He joined the group Allianz, and in 1942, he exhibited his abstract work at the Kunsthaus Zurich with Max Bill, Leo Leuppi, Richard Lohse and Camille Graeser.
With the end of the war, he went back to Milan. The Italian publisher Einaudi appointed him to creative director for the publishing house. The job put him in contact with the post-war Italian intelligentsia: Cesare Pavese, Natalia Ginzburg, Elio Vittorini, Franco Fortini, Ettore Sottsass, Achille Castiglioni and Albe Steiner.
