herbert matter

mercedes, ca. 1940

pontresina engadin, 1935

stacked children's eames chairs

ad for the container corporation of america, 1941

cover of harper's bazaar, june 1940

mercedes, nude in reeds, ca. 1940

world war II poster for civilian defense,  1941

ad for knoll chairs, 1950

mercedes, provincetown, 1940

ad for swiss tourism, 1936

mercedes with driftwood, 1940

cover for arts & architecture, january 1945

herbert matter was born in 1907 in engelberg, a swiss mountain village. in 1925, he attended the ecole des beaux-arts in genenva. in 1927, he moved to paris and attended the academie moderne under the tutelage of fernand léger & amédée ozenfant. inspired by the work of el lissitzky & man ray, he began to experiment with the rollei, focusing on photograms, collage & montage. 

in 1929 he was hired as a designer & photographer for the legendary deberny & peignot concern where he learned the nuances of fine typography while he assisted a.m. cassandre & le corbusier.

in 1932 he was abruptly expelled from france for not having the proper papers & returned to switzerland where he  designed posters for the swiss tourist office. he was offered a round trip ticket to the united states at payment for his work with a swiss ballet troupe in 1936. when the tour ended, he decided to remain. he went to see alexey brodovitch, who had been collecting the swiss travel posters, & was soon taking photographs for harper's bazaar & saks fifth avenue.

during world war II he made posters for the container corporation of america. he became the design consultant at knoll in 1944 where he worked with charles & ray eames closely for over 12 years.  he joined the yale faculty in 1952 as a professor of photography & graphic design. in 1954, he was commissioned to create the corporate identity for the new haven railroad. the ubiquitous "nh" logo, with its elongated serifs, was one of the most identifiable symbols in america.

in 1944, he was asked by the museum of modern art to direct a movie on the sculpture of his close friend & neighbor, alexander calder, which was an artistic success. from 1958 to 1968, he was the design consultant for the guggenheim museum. in 1960 he started photographing the sculpture of another close friend, alberto giacometti, for a book project - they would work on it for the next 25 years & the book was published posthumously.

his beautiful wife, mercedes, was the daughter of the american modernist painter arthur beecher carles & was herself a painter, founding the new york studio school.  they counted among their friends alexander calder, jackson pollock, willem de kooning, robert frank & alberto giacometti, franz kline & philip guston.

he died on may 8, 1984.