For large patches of his later career Heinz Edelmann focused on quickly producing posters for arts events and series productions: these typically made use of a fairly regularized typographic template for information, and wild, allusive but enigmatic illustrations. For one season in the mid-1980s, he worked with the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus theater, playing off the plays’ angsty plotlines with evocatively deformed bodies.

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WDR. Die Ausgewogenheit (3): Die Scharfe, Aber Erlaubte Kritik [The Balance: The Pointed, But Allowed, Critique]. n.d.

In the 1970s and 1980s Heinz Edelmann designed many posters for the West German public broadcasting station Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR).

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Heinz Edelmann worked extensively with the Klett-Cotta press over the course of his career: we’ve collected some of his best jackets.

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Heinz Edelmann Collection: Folder 14 Item 93.

While preparing for a class visit a couple of weeks ago, I rediscovered these gorgeous posters Heinz Edelmann did for Theater der Welt (Theater of the World) in 1981.

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Esteemed designer and illustrator Heinz Edelmann passed away on Tuesday. I had the great pleasure of getting to know him a little bit while coordinating his gift to the Glaser Archives. He quickly became one of my favorite people to chat with; despite his deteriorating health, he was always charming and extremely funny. His mordant sense of humor betrayed a clear frustration with the current state of the world. Above are a couple of pages from his 2008 holiday card.

I feel very sad, but also grateful that we’ll be able help keep his legacy alive through his amazing body of work.

Enjoy a few of the acclaimed posters he produced for Germany’s Westdeutscher Rundfunk radio station after the jump. And click here for a characteristically witty and illuminating interview with Edelmann in Graphis.

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