id Druck is a German printing brand whose mark was designed by Herbert W. Kapitzki in 1960. Kapitzki (1925-2005) was a German graphic designer and visual communication professor who studied under Willi Baumeister at the Stuttgart Academy of Fine Arts and later led the Visual Communications Department at the Hochschule für Gestaltung Ulm.[1]
Design and History
The id Druck symbol was created in 1960 by Kapitzki, who worked as a freelance designer in visual communications from 1953 and served the Landesgewerbeamt Baden-Württemberg (Office for the Promotion of Trade and Industry) in Stuttgart from 1956 to 1968.[1] The mark is categorized among Kapitzki’s institutional signs, which he described as visually closed configurations with emblematic character that signal institutional understanding.[2]
Kapitzki’s approach to sign design emphasized that signs must be understandable, informative, concise and honest to be aesthetically correct.[2] His broader design philosophy, articulated in his writings, rejected decorative or entertainment elements in visual information, favoring factual, object-related communication.[2]
Kapitzki was a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale from 1958 and participated in the first Logo Design Biennial in Ostend, Belgium in 1994.[1] His institutional and pictogram work for clients including the Schering AG in Berlin and Stuttgart’s tram system established him as a significant figure in German visual communication design.[3]
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