Otl Aicher

Otl Aicher was born in Ulm, Germany, in 1922. After the war he studied sculpture at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich (1946-1947) and then opened his own graphic design studio in his home town.

In 1953 he was one of the founders of the Hochschule für Gestaltung (HfG) in Ulm, together with his wife Inge Scholl, whom he had married in 1952, and Max Bill: it became the most important German design school of the post-war years. In the 1950s he worked with Hans Gugelot and Dieter Rams for Braun, helping to shape its rigorous, functional design, and also lectured at Yale University.

From 1962 to 1964 he ran the school he had helped to found. His writings from those years had a lasting influence on design culture.

He worked mainly on corporate identity, for companies such as Lufthansa, Braun and ERCO, but he is best known for the pictograms he created for the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, still a reference for signage all over the world.