Swiss grid poster generator

What makes it Swiss

These are the design choices this generator makes or lets you set, as the Stylogeny atlas names them. Each links to every style that makes the same choice.

How this generator works

• One modular grid, derived from the format and the leading of the small text, places everything: the headline’s ink, every text block and every shape sit on its lines.
• Type carries the hierarchy: one very large headline, flush left, against small text in one size. Bars, rules, numerals and primitives take units as wide as the text columns, so every edge they have is an edge the text has; asymmetric and calm, with the parts spread over the height.

What it never does:

• No concentric arcs or circle ripples, and no copy of a famous concert or exhibition poster: the figure is built from modules by the seed.
• No names of people, venues or works in the default text; no centred or justified setting.

Every picture is a recipe: the variation number and the settings, kept in the page's address. Copy the link and the same picture comes back, in any browser. Random (or R) draws a new variation; ← and → step through them; S shuffles the settings; C borrows another style's colours.

About International Typographic Style

The International Typographic Style, often called Swiss Style, grew up in Basel and Zurich in the 1950s and became the common language of cultural and corporate design in the 1960s. Its posters look calm because nothing is placed by eye: a grid worked out from the format decides where every element starts and ends. A neutral sans-serif, set flush left and ragged right, carries the hierarchy through size, weight and position, and empty space is part of the composition.

This generator builds the grid first. The leading of the small text sets the unit: each module is a whole number of lines deep, the gutter is one empty line, and the format decides how many rows fit. The headline is sized so its ink spans whole columns and hangs from the top margin or stands on the foot of the grid; the information lines hang from module tops; bars, hairline rules, a large numeral, discs and squares fill the largest free part of the grid in units as wide as the text columns, so every edge lines up with the type. Turn on Show the grid to see the modules and baselines behind the poster.

The variation number changes the layout, the shapes and the information lines, which are generic dates, rooms and opening hours and never name a person, a venue or a work. Leave the headline empty and it also picks a neutral word, such as Raster, Ordnung or Grid. The type is Inter, an open-source neo-grotesque.

International Typographic Style in Stylogeny: 1950–1975, its lineage, its palette, real works and the full set of choices that define it.

Use it from code

The recipe below draws the picture this page opens with. Copy recipe gives you the one on screen. Agents can render recipes to SVG or PNG through Morphogeny's MCP server (morphogeny_render); the same recipe always gives the same SVG.

{
  "tool": "swiss",
  "v": 1,
  "seed": 18,
  "format": "portrait",
  "params": {
    "headline": "",
    "info": "Form and colour in design",
    "columns": 6,
    "contrast": 0.85,
    "whitespace": 0.5,
    "shapes": "mixed",
    "rotated": false,
    "colour": "spot",
    "grid": false
  },
  "palette": "swiss-international"
}

Open this recipe: /swiss/#seed=18&v=1. A plain-text version of this page:/swiss.md.

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• Concrete art generator: one module, repeated and turned by a rule
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• Kinetic type generator: your words filling the frame, moving along their weight and width