Ulm School of Design - Max Bill

​Max Bill (22 Dec 1908 - 9 Dec 1994)

​The Ulm School of Design was founded in 1953 by Inge Aicher-Scholl, Olt Aicher and Max Bill – with Bill being a former student at the Bauhaus. The Ulm gained international recognition by teaching a wide range of multidisciplinary context in design, even further than that of the Bauhaus’ approach of integrating art, craft and technology. Many ways of approaching the design process were implemented within the Ulm, in departments such as Product Design, Visual Communication, Industrialised Building, Information and Filmmaking through the years 1953-1968, the years in which the Ulm School of Design was in operation.
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​​The origins of the Ulm emerged from the brother and sister Scholl Foundation, made in 1950 by Igne Scholl in memory of their siblings Sophie and Hans Scholl, having been members of the resistance group ‘White Rose’, spreading anonymous leaflets and graffiti that called for active opposition to the Nazi Regime. Sophie and Hans Scholl were executed in 1943 by the Nazis

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​In 1953 the building was opened, designed by Max Bill a Swiss artist and designer. The school and remains intact today as a historically important building, viewed as one of the world’s most significant design schools, equal to that of the Bauhaus. Max Bill was best known for being the driving force in the founding and planning of the Ulm School of Design and architect and head of the school (1950-1956) and the head of the Department of Architecture and Product Form. Some of Max Bill’s most famous design pieces are still being manufactured today as re-editions, such as the Ulm stool. However in 1956, Bill resigned his position as head of the Ulm, yet remained to teach there until 1957 before opening a studio in Zurich.

Max Bill’s artwork, was a combination of painting and sculptures, where he presented his interpretations of Constructivism through his, integrating geometry and mathematics into his art practice. Throughout his years, Bill created a variety of vibrant, geometrical pieces as well as his sculptures, making his work look all the more modern in contrast to art that had come before.

​Following his departure from the Ulm, Bill was appointed professorship at the State University of Fine Arts in Hamburg, holding the chair of environmental design. (1967-1974) Bill received many awards for his work over the course of his creative career as a painter, architect, sculpture and publicist, and was a member of many artistic societies. Max Bill died on the 9th December 1994 at Berlin Tegal Airport, on his way back for a presentation of his building for the Bauhaus-Achiv in Berlin, at the age of 85. But his work is still seen as influential and a major part of history and shows the influence of his time at the Ulm and the Bauhaus, as his idea on the concept of modern design had been fundamentally shaped by his studies at the schools.