Design
Pioneer: Swiss-Italian style
LORA LAMM
B. 1928
Switzerland
Graphic
designer
Lora Lamm
B. 1928
Switzerland
Graphic designer
Lora Lamm studied graphic design from 1946 to 1951 under instructors including Johannes Itten, Ernst Keller and Ernst Gubler at the School of Arts and Crafts in Zurich. With her studies complete and a few initial appointments behind her, she was drawn to Milan, a city flourishing in the post-war economic boom. She started out at Studio Boggeri, where other well-regarded Swiss designers also worked, before moving to Panettone Motta Milano as a packaging designer. In 1954, on the recommendation of the Swiss graphic designer Max Huber, she switched to the advertising department of the celebrated Milanese department store La Rinascente, standing in shortly thereafter for the chief designer with responsibility for design and production of the in-house magazine Cronache. She rapidly imposed her own design visions and attracted a new female clientele to La Rinascente. With her experimental use of photography, illustration and typography - inspired partly by examples of graphic design at international department stores in New York and Tokyo - she defines the imagery of the fashion world to this day. From 1958 onwards, Lamm worked freelance for La Rinascente and the associated department store Upim. This enabled her to continue working independently for other clients such as Pirelli, Elizabeth Arden, Niggi and Latte Milano. Lamm returned to Zurich in 1963, joining the advertising agency Frank C. Thiessing as a partner shortly afterwards.
MORE ON LORA
Lora Lamm at her home for Apartamento Magazine 2015