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Final artwork, Tukan, 1959
Jacques Plancherel
Final artwork, Tukan,
Jacques Plancherel,
*1071

Final artwork, Tukan,
1959

Jacques Plancherel
*1071
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Museum für Gestaltung Zürich
Ausstellungsstrasse 60
8031 Zurich
Museum map
Museum für Gestaltung Zürich
Toni-Areal, Pfingstweidstrasse 94
8031 Zurich
Pavillon Le Corbusier
Höschgasse 8
8008 Zürich
Museum map
  • Tukan Jacques Plancherel Final artwork
  • Tukan Jacques Plancherel Final artwork
  • Tukan Jacques Plancherel Final artwork
  • Tukan Jacques Plancherel Final artwork
  • Tukan Jacques Plancherel Final artwork
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Listen to the text
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For decades, the pictograms of the Swiss graphic designer Jacques Plancherel (1926–2011) have shaped the visual identity of the Zurich Zoo. Starting in 1959, he designed on the basis of a convincing formal concept a world of pictographic symbols that, despite their universal readability, reveal his personal approach.

Pictograms must be quickly grasped and understood. They are graphical icons based on abstracted objects reduced to schematic form. They create a visual information system in a minimum of space, forming a bridge between language and the real world. In this case, it is the world of the Zurich Zoo that Jacques Plancherel (1926–2011) reduced to pictographic symbols. The Swiss graphic artist, book designer, image editor, and long-time teacher and head of the graphics class at the Schule für Gestaltung in Lucerne—today the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU)—designed the first pictograms in 1959 in connection with the construction of the primate building. He developed these in accordance with a uniform formal concept: clear, precise lines, deep black surfaces, white recesses, and the circle as a basic element. Plancherel emphasized the specific physical characteristics of the animals and made them actors in the signs. With their body language and their body parts protruding out of the ring, the animals point the way for visitors: the toucan points with its magnificent beak to the right, and the lemur’s arm points diagonally downward. Despite their universal intelligibility, the pictograms have a distinct visual language that has shaped the image of the Zurich Zoo for decades. Even today, the toucan pictogram adorns the zoo’s letterhead, and Plancherel’s pictograms are still in use in unchanged form in the primate house and the seal enclosure. (Vanessa Gendre)

Reinzeichnung, Tukan, 1959
Gestaltung: Jacques Plancherel
Auftrag: Zoo Zürich, CH
Material/Technik: Kalkpapier
48.2 × 38.5 cm
Donation: Jacques Plancherel
Eigentum: Museum für Gestaltung Zürich / ZHdK
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Literature

David Crow, Zeichen. Eine Einführung in die Semiotik für Grafikdesigner, Lausanne 2003.

Ulrike Felsing, Flughafen Köln/Bonn. Intégral Ruedi Baur, in: Museum für Gestaltung Zürich (Hg.), 100 Jahre Schweizer Grafik, Zürich 2014, S. 210–211.

Markus Rathgeb, Otl Aicher, London 2006.

http://www.sikart.ch/KuenstlerInnen.aspx?id=12527468
SIKART Lexikon zur Kunst in der Schweiz, Jacques Plancherel

Image credits

Reinzeichnung, Tukan, 1959, Gestaltung: Jacques Plancherel, Donation: Jacques Plancherel
Abbildung: Museum für Gestaltung Zürich / ZHdK

Reinzeichnung, Schimpanse (Zoo Zürich), 1959, Gestaltung: Jacques Plancherel, Donation: Jacques Plancherel
Abbildung: Museum für Gestaltung Zürich / ZHdK

Reinzeichnung, Lemur (Zoo Zürich), 1959, Gestaltung: Jacques Plancherel, Donation: Jacques Plancherel
Abbildung: Museum für Gestaltung Zürich / ZHdK

Reinzeichnung, Elefant (Zoo Zürich), 1959, Gestaltung: Jacques Plancherel, Donation: Jacques Plancherel
Abbildung: Museum für Gestaltung Zürich / ZHdK

Reinzeichnung, Schlange (Zoo Zürich), 1959, Gestaltung: Jacques Plancherel, Donation: Jacques Plancherel
Abbildung: Museum für Gestaltung Zürich / ZHdK

Entwurf (Montage), Pinguin (Zoo Zürich), 1983, Gestaltung: Blumenstein + Plancherel, Zürich, CH / Jacques Plancherel, Donation: Jacques Plancherel
Abbildung: Museum für Gestaltung Zürich / ZHdK

Exhibition text
Jacques Plancherel – Zoo Pictograms

For decades, the pictograms created by Swiss graphic designer Jacques Plancherel (1926–2011) have shaped the visual identity of the Zurich Zoo. Based on a coherent formal concept consisting of precise lines, deep black surfaces, white recesses, and the circle as a basic element, beginning in 1959 Plancherel developed a pictorial graphic world that, despite its universal intelligibility, possesses an appearance all its own.