Burkhardt Buchdruck (also recorded as Burkhardt Buchdruckerei) was a Swiss printing company that commissioned a notable typographic logo in 1962 from the Swiss graphic designer Hans Hartmann. The mark is documented in design archives as a logotype built around the initials of the company name, categorized with the tags “letter B, 3 letters, outlines.”[1]
Design and History
Hans Hartmann (1913–1991) was a Swiss artist and graphic designer known for numerous trade marks and symbols, including the 1972 emblem for the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) featuring two arrows emerging from the Swiss cross.[2] His clients included PKZ, Bossart, Opplicher & Frauchiger, Interieur, Meer, and F. Gygi + Co.[3]
The Burkhardt Buchdruck logo was designed in Switzerland in 1962 and is classified as a logotype with initials, using the letter B in an outlined treatment.[1] The company operated in the printing sector.[1]
The Burkhardt family business traces its origins to 1941, when Albert Burkhardt founded a bookbinding company in Zürich. In 1961, the firm moved into its own production building on Fordistrasse in Zürich.[4] The company later became widely known by the shortened name Bubu, and in 2015 it formally changed its name to Bubu, working with the design studio Bob Design on a revised visual identity.[5]
Meaning and Symbolism
Documented descriptions of the 1962 Burkhardt Buchdruck mark are limited to its formal characteristics: it is a logotype using initials, featuring the letter B in an outlined style.[1] No official source provides a documented interpretation of specific symbolic meaning for this particular mark. The 2015 Bubu rebrand, by contrast, made the term “bind” central, symbolized by a bridge between the two “bu” letters in the new logotype.[5]
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