Walter Herdeg

Walter Herdeg was born on January 3, 1908. He was born of a poor family living in the large city Zürich, Switzerland. His passion of visual arts started in his youth. Herdeg's love for art was evident when he drew as a child, and he desired a profession along similar lines, but formal design schools were not to be established until much later and Herdeg feared that his career path would be limited to work as a lithographic drafter in a printing house. He did not pursue his talent until he met Ernst Keller. Keller was a Swiss designer popular for his innovations in photomontage posters in the 1920s. He was also the teacher who was kind enough to offer him a full scholarship at a new design program that had just been established in the Kunstgewerbeschule Zürich, which was also taught by him as the very first instructor. The influence of Keller on Herdeg was a heavy one, and proceeding the launch of his career, it would be seen in his own works. After his graduation from Kunstgewerbeschule, Herdeg went on to continue his studies in 1928 under the guidance of Otto Hermann Werner Hadank (O.H.W Hadank), a leading figure in German package design. Two years later, Hadank would extend to Herdeg the same hospitality as Keller did, by employing him as a calligrapher, package and logo designer. At the end of this ordeal, Herdeg opened his own studio in to do the same work, but this time independently.