Walter Herzog was a Swiss advertising consultant (Reklameberater) who founded his own advertising agency in St. Gallen in the 1930s and ran it until his son took over in 1972. The agency operated under the name “Atelier Herzog” and later became part of the Rorschach-based Erat, Thoma & Herzog Werbeagentur AG, which was renamed E,T&H in 2007. This entry covers the visual identity associated with the Walter Herzog agency and its successor firms.
Design and History
Walter Herzog was born on 1 November 1903 and died on 8 September 1990. Raised in Basel, he learned the advertising trade from the ground up and was already active in eastern Switzerland by 1933. He introduced well-known brand names such as “Toko” and “Flex-Sil” into advertising, and it was during this period that he founded his own advertising agency in St. Gallen. Herzog was known for sales-oriented advertising, to which his attached graphic studio (grafisches Atelier) had to subordinate itself. In 1972, his son took over the agency.[1]
The agency operated under the name “Atelier Herzog” in St. Gallen, as documented by poster credits from the 1940s and 1950s in the Basel Poster Collection. Atelier Herzog is credited with designs for Olma (the Swiss agricultural fair in St. Gallen) posters dated 1945, 1947 and around 1950, as well as a St. Galler Jahrmarkt poster from around 1945.[2][3]
By the late 1980s, the agency had evolved into Erat, Thoma & Herzog Werbeagentur AG, based in Rorschach, as shown in poster credits from 1988 and 1999.[2][4] The agency, founded in 1976, renamed itself E,T&H Werbeagentur AG BSW effective 1 July 2007. Board president Peter Thoma explained the change: “In recent years we have become considerably more agile. We document this development with a more elegant name, and remain clearly recognisable.” He also noted practical reasons: “Two of the three namesakes are no longer with the company. We chose E,T&H because this name is already familiar: in the labelling of our advertising materials, in internal working papers and in verbal usage.”[5]
Meaning and Symbolism
No official documentation has been found describing the symbolism or design intent behind the Walter Herzog agency’s logo. The agency’s identity appears to have been primarily word-based, with the name “Atelier Herzog” used on poster credits in the 1940s and 1950s, and the full partnership name “Erat, Thoma & Herzog Werbeagentur AG” used by the 1980s. The 2007 renaming to E,T&H was explicitly justified as a shortening of an unwieldy name while retaining recognisability, rather than as a symbolic rebrand.[5]
Logo Index is an independent educational archive covering logos, visual identities and graphic design history. All trademarks and brand assets remain the property of their respective owners.
