1957–1990
3,096,999
6.3gallon
40mpg
7,450ddm
The Trabant is an automobile produced from 1957–1990 by former East German car manufacturer VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau. It’s often seen as symbolic of the former East Germany. The Trabant had a duroplast body mounted on a one-piece steel unibody chassis, front-wheel drive, a transverse engine, and independent suspension. These were unusual features in 1957 but remained much the same until 1989 when it acquired a Volkswagen engine.
Max Huber found a balance between serving his clients and his own need to experiment with his designs. He experimented with bold colours and shapes, typographic elements and images. I love how Huber rarely adopted a typical approach to using photographs, instead combining them with those elements to create designs which always surprise me.
Moving from Switzerland to Milan and back again after the Second World War, Huber worked commercially on iconic and influential designs. He also taught graphic design in the Swiss town of Lugano, which coincidentally is where I stay when I go to work in Switzerland. He died in Mendrisio—where my Swiss office is—in 1992.
Max Huber was born in Baar, Switzerland in 1919 and throughout his long career he earned a reputation as one of the most innovative designers of his generation. Huber was a contemporary of Josef Müller-Brockmann and was influenced by constructivism, futurism, and modernism.