Otto "Otl" Aicher was a German graphic designer and typographer. Aicher co-founded and taught at the influential Ulm School of Design. He is known for having led the design team of the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, and for overseeing the creation of its prominently used system of pictograms. Aicher also developed the Rotis typeface.
Aicher (right, in 1959)
Book covers designed by Otl Aicher for Severin & Siedler
Pictograms designed by Aicher, in use at the Athens Airport
Aicher's Lufthansa logo
The Ulm School of Design was a college of design based in Ulm, Germany. It was founded in 1953 by Inge Aicher-Scholl, Otl Aicher and Max Bill, the latter being first rector of the school and a former student at the Bauhaus. The HfG quickly gained international recognition by emphasizing the holistic, multidisciplinary context of design beyond the Bauhaus approach of integrating art, craft and technology. The subjects of sociology, psychology, politics, economics, philosophy and systems-thinking were integrated with aesthetics and technology. During HfG operations from 1953–1968, progressive approaches to the design process were implemented within the departments of Product Design, Visual Communication, Industrialized Building, Information and Filmmaking.
Building Ulm HfG designed by Max Bill and completed in 1955.
Building Ulm HfG, photography by Hans G. Conrad.
Model for the continuous study of the workshop of Tomas Maldonado.
Poster designed by Margarete Kögler in the class of Otl Aicher.