Walter Cyliax

Biography

Swiss. Born 25 October 1899 in Leipzig. Studied typesetting at the Leipzig Akademie für graphische Künste und Buchgewerbe. By 1924 he was in Zurich, where he later became art director for the pioneering Fretz Printing Works; he edited the special number (Switzerland) of Archiv für Buchgewerbe und Gebrauchsgraphik. 1929: participated in the Film und Foto exhibition in Stuttgart organized by the Deutscher Werkbund. 1933: involved in launch of Typographische Monatsblätter at Bern. 1936: designed the typeface Haenel-Antiqua. 1937: Cyliax moved to Vienna to manage a printing firm. Died 1945 in Vienna during a bombing raid.

Writings about

  • Friedrich Friedl, Nicolaus Ott, Bernard Stein, Typography – when/who/how, Cologne: Könemann Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, 1998., 1998
    • ‘The work of Fretz Bros., Ltd., of Zurich’, Commercial Art, 1929, VI, pp. 216-21
  • Heinz and Bodo Rasch, Gefesselter Blick, Stuttgart: Zaugg, 1930, pp. 38-40 (repr. Baden, Switzerland: Müller, 1996)
  • ‘In der Schriftgiesserei’, Deutscher Drucker, June 1936, p. 361 (showing of Haenel-Antiqua)
  • B. Margadant, Das Schweizer Plakat 1900-83, Basle, 1983
  • Das Plakat in der Schweiz, Schaffhausen, 1990
  • Richard Hollis, Swiss Graphic Design, London: King, 2006.
    • Eberhard Hölscher, ‘Modern menus and wine-cards’, Gebrauchsgraphik (International Advertising Art), Berlin: Phönix Illustrationsdruck und Verlag GmbH (later: ‘Gebrauchsgraphik’ Druck und Verlag GmbH), 1933-71. Published from Munich from 1950., 1929, v. 2, pp. 40-49
  • Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon, Munich/Leipzig: K.G. Saur Verlag, 1990-., 1999
  • H.K. Frenzel, ‘The commercial artist Cyliax and Gebr. Fretz A.G. Zurich’, Gebrauchsgraphik (International Advertising Art), Berlin: Phönix Illustrationsdruck und Verlag GmbH (later: ‘Gebrauchsgraphik’ Druck und Verlag GmbH), 1933-71. Published from Munich from 1950., May 1930, pp. 24-32

Exhibitions

  • Gewerbemuseum, Basle, 1933; Kunstmuseum, Winterthur, 1979.