What The Nazis’ Style Guide Says About The “Power of Design”

ARTICLE BY Jim Edwards PUBLISHED ON A-FE

Steven Heller is a design historian & the co-founder of the MFA in design criticism at the School of Visual Arts in New York. He is also the author of “The Swastika, a Symbol Beyond Redemption?” & “Iron Fists: Branding the 20th Century Totalitarian State,” both books about the history of fascist symbolism. Heller recently discovered the German Nazi Party’s branding & design handbook at an antiquarian book fair.

Existing within a larger manual on the organization of the Nazi Party, Adolf Hitler’s style guide consists of 70 full-page, full-color plates (on heavy paper) that provide examples of virtually every Nazi flag, insignia, patterns for official Nazi Party office signs, special armbands for the Reichsparteitag (Reichs Party Day), & Honor Badges. The book ‘over-explains the obvious’ & leaves no Nazi Party organization question, regardless of how minute, unanswered.

All that according to a recent post on Heller’s blog.

He agreed to talk to The Tagline about the similarities & differences between history’s most notorious propagandists & modern American marketers. [Read More]