Pressemitteilungen

Deffke who? Still largely unknown today, the artist was well known to his contemporaries. In addition to his pioneering achievements in the field of posters, he made a name for himself through his corporate design projects and especially through his company and product logos.

As an outstanding graduate of the Elberfeld School of Applied Arts, he went to Peter Behrens’ studio in 1909 and worked there on corporate design for AEG. Together with Carl Ernst Hinkefuß, he founded one of the first advertising agencies in Berlin in 1915: the “Wilhelmwerk”. The book art works for the printing company Otto Elsner and HAPAG Lloyd show his demand for perfection. He became professor and director of the Magdeburg School of Applied Arts and planned and designed large exhibitions such as “Der Zucker” (1925). In the early 1920s he developed spectacular trade fair pavilions and collaborated with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. He worked for Daimler-Benz, Krupp, Reemtsma, Fernsehen AG, Rückforth, Most, Manoli, Gerresheimer Glas, Koenig & Bauer and a large number of other companies for which more than 10,000 logo designs were created. Dismissed as school director by the National Socialists in 1933, he was reinstated after 1945 and created the well-known poster for the reconstruction exhibition “Magdeburg lebt”. In the spring of 1950 he was awarded the Art Prize of the City of Berlin, and he died in the same year.

Exhibition

The Bröhan Design Foundation Berlin was able to secure the artist’s estate in 2010. Deffke’s contribution to design history was recognized in an exhibition and a comprehensive publication. In cooperation with the German Poster Museum, the Bröhan Design Foundation organized the first major retrospective in 2013 at the Museum Folkwang Essen under the title “Corporate Design: The logo pioneer Wilhelm Deffke (1887–1950)”.

Video about the exhibition

Publication

In 2014, the Zurich publishing house Scheidegger & Spiess published the book about Deffke as a German and English edition. The volume, designed by Alessio Leonardi, was placed on the shortlist of the most beautiful German books by the German Book Art Foundation. Numerous essays place the various aspects of Deffke’s work in the context of European design development. More than 800 images illustrate his pioneering achievements in the field of poster and commercial graphics, as well as architectural designs and exhibition and trade fair appearances.
This book offers an opportunity for the long-overdue rediscovery of an exceptional creative personality.