MUNICH.-Pierre Mendell – one the world’s leading graphic designers – passed away at the age of 79 on December 19, 2008 in Munich. For nearly 30 years, he masterminded the visual identity of Die Neue Sammlung – The International Design Museum Munich. Only a few days prior to his death, Pierre Mendell designed his last poster – for an event that the museum will host in February 2009.

For over 40 years Pierre Mendell’s posters strikingly accentuated Munich’s cityscape, where his designs covered advertising pillars and billboards; since 1980 these were mainly exhibition posters for the Neue Sammlung, and as from 1993 he also designed for the Bayerische Staatsoper.

“ Quality graphic design stands out for the mindset it exhibits: stringent, reduced in form, always intense, never pretentious. In this way, Pierre Mendell developed a most distinct style. He flexibly dealt with particular tasks and through this, eminently lived up to the challenge of respective themes. Hence, Pierre Mendell’s posters are so simple and convincing and will continue to be of great significance beyond this day.” (Florian Hufnagl, Die Neue Sammlung – The International Design Museum Munich)

Graphic designer Pierre Mendell (born 1929 in Essen) created an oeuvre that has been honored with many international prizes. In his work he focused on two internationally active cultural institutions: Die Neue Sammlung for which from 1980-2003, year-in, year-out he designed the posters as well as the complete visual identity. He also worked for a similar extent for Bayerische Staatsoper from 1993-2006. The collaboration between Die Neue Sammlung and Pierre Mendell spawned an unusual series of posters for the museums in Munich – a unique project involving state and municipal museums as well as Deutsches Museum. In 2003, this series was presented to the public.