Label, Acaralate 25E Geigy – Miticide,

ca. 1967

In 1956, the propaganda department of J.R. Geigy AG launched a US branch in Ardsley, New York, intending to implement the Basel graphic design culture there. This proved to be difficult. It was not until 1958 that Geigy consultant Gottfried Honegger (1917–2016) succeeded in gaining the trust of the management in Ardsley and setting up an on-site studio. He hired Fred Troller (1930–2002) from Zurich as manager in 1960. The studio mainly advertised medications and dyes. A specialized US-based agency was assigned to agrochemicals, the most lucrative field for Geigy USA. Nevertheless, in 1962 an employee of the art studio, Markus Löw, was entrusted with redesigning the entire range of agrochemical products. Löw, who had been recommended to Ardsley by his former Zurich teacher Honegger, spent several years working on a packaging series consisting of more than one hundred units. Löw’s first draft, which involved stylized pests like the ones on the Basel packaging, was rejected because different restrictions applied in the United States. The cans had to be labeled on all sides and the amount of text and type size were also stipulated. Furthermore, as in Basel, it was essential to differentiate the products by color. Not least due to these restrictions, Löw worked out a consistent, purely typographical design in conformity with the minimalist Swiss tradition. (Barbara Junod)