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This week, we focus on posters created by Erik Nitsche (1908–1998), a Swiss graphic designer of the postwar period, who wielded the language of modern design within a corporate context in an effort to redirect public sentiment away from nuclear anxieties and toward a technological future. General Dynamics, an American corporation founded in 1952, served
as the conjoined survival strategy for several companies working in nuclear
energy, electricity, electronics, aerodynamics, and space dynamics immediately
following the Second World War. Cultural pressure in the postwar period
necessitated re-branding the nuclear field and redirecting public interest from
the shock of global suffering toward the possibility of scientific innovation. Nitsche was appointed artistic director of General Dynamics in 1955 and, with this redirection in mind, would effectively aid in not only shifting public perceptions around military-industrial processes, but also in repackaging the future, giving a graphic image to the atomic age. As work created on commission, Nitsche’s own views on the fraught question of atomic energy are hard to assess, which further complicates the tensions informing these works. For more on Nitsche and his work for General Dynamics, click here
for an essay by Margot Sher, a sophomore studying anthropology and journalism at Oberlin College, who spent her January 2025 Winter Term researching and writing on these works in the collection. Thank you Margot!
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