To understand Lora Lamm’s style, even a single poster for la Rinascente will suffice. The garments are barely silhouettes. They are a “zero degree” of figuration, reminiscent of Hans Arp’s Dada silhouettes, but it is the woman in the foreground with the wide-brimmed hat that is the threshold element. It draws us into the poster, where we perceive the theatricality of the composition. It reassures us and predisposes us to a correct reading of faceless and often legless silhouettes. It is not just an illustration: it is a veritable project, a finished work. A sublime exercise in lyrical minimalism that mingles childhood play with infallible rigor and has given lightness and grace to the advertising of large companies. Lora Lamm is renowned for her strong communication skills, appealing, delicate colours, the particular immediacy of the line accompanied by the simplicity of the figurative drawn shapes and the deep knowledge of typography with the use of photographic collage. His graphic expression contributed to creating a new way of conceiving advertising communication, especially starting from the fifties in Milan after the war. On display are the nucleus of posters she donated to the Archive of the m.a.x. museo.
Lora Lamm (Arosa, Canton Graubünden 1928 – Zurich 2025) attended the famous Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich. After graduating from high school and gaining professional experience in an agency in Zurich, in 1953, she moved to Milan, remaining there until 1963. She worked for a short period in the Boggeri studio and for Motta. In the autumn of 1954, Max Huber – creator of la Rinascente’s corporate identity – introduced her to the management of the important department store. In the spring of next year, she began working at Rinascente’s advertising office, located on the seventh floor of the building in Piazza del Duomo.
Starting in 1956 she collaborated with the Swiss photographer Serge Libiszewski and with external photographers, including Aldo Ballo and Ugo Mulas, inserting images in the form of collages in advertising graphics. These years are memorable for her persuasive advertising campaigns: summer sea, home furnishings, garden and terrace, spring, perfumery, seasonal opening, summer fabrics, the great linen fair, camping, fashion at school, men’s fashion, women’s clothing, haberdashery, and summer fashion shows, summer fashion, autumn-winter fashion and Christmas campaigns, Easter, and the sales or discounts that created the “Rinascente style”, playful and clearly recognisable. In the same period she created the corresponding advertisements for la in the Corriere della Sera and several other newspapers and designed the related product catalogues (also with illustrations by Giovanna Graf).
Overall, in few years Lora Lamm created the entire corporate advertising of La Rinascente, from catalogues to posters, invitations, mailing, and packaging in a modern and innovative way.
In 1958 she changed her working relationship with la Rinascente and took on the role of “Permanent Consultant”, allowing her to work freelance for other companies such as Pirelli, Elizabeth Arden Italia, the Consorzio Produttori Latte Milano, Niggi Profumiere, and others. From this time on, she signed her posters and advertising campaigns, which marked an era and remain etched in the collective memory. Think in particular of “Pirelli per lo scooter”, “Pneumatici per biciclette” and “Borsa per l’acqua calda”.
Lora Lamm’s subjects are mainly women, who in the early sixties represented the new figure of the emancipated “female customer”, young and professionally active. Lora Lamm lives in Zurich.
Works by the designer in institutional collections: National Museum Zürich; Museum für Gestaltung Zürich; Centro Internazionale d’Arte e Grafica CIAG, Chiasso.
