I love the cover. The simplified, jagged, geometric map of Europe with shapes echoed in the giant yellow ball work so well. The offset composition of the ball bleeding off the page reminds me of a poster that Josef Müller-Brockmann might design. In fact, this programme is the closest one I’ve seen to the great modernist Swiss Style – clean, stylish, non-sentimental – that's so loved by designers.
It’s pocket size (A5), three-colour printing. Those colours aren’t the red of Benfica, nor the blue and maroon of Barça as you might expect. Instead it’s yellow and black; a nod, perhaps, to local side Young Boys. The programme was, after all, designed and printed in Berne, with the final at the city’s Wankdorf Stadium.
I love the cover. The simplified, jagged, geometric map of Europe with shapes echoed in the giant yellow ball work so well. The offset composition of the ball bleeding off the page reminds me of a poster that Josef Müller-Brockmann might design. In fact, this programme is the closest one I’ve seen to the great modernist Swiss Style – clean, stylish, non-sentimental – that's so loved by designers.
It’s pocket size (A5), three-colour printing. Those colours aren’t the red of Benfica, nor the blue and maroon of Barça as you might expect. Instead it’s yellow and black; a nod, perhaps, to local side Young Boys. The programme was, after all, designed and printed in Berne, with the final at the city’s Wankdorf Stadium.
The inside pages are simple and elegant. Minimal typography (Akzidenz-Grotesk, or similar), a strong grid, asymmetric, with as much white space as a designer could wish for. The delicate keylines and blind columns would still work in Champions Journal now. This was the golden age of graphics and it still resonates today.
As for the football, the team profiles are fantastic, again in that pared-back Swiss style. There is only space for four players from each team – a four-a-side European Cup final? – despite that abundance of white space throughout. The team line-ups and route-to-the-final results are so minimal that they almost look like scientific formulas.
Most of the adverts are also super-stylish. And if you were in any doubt that this final was played in Switzerland then the back cover gives it away: an etching illustration of a bar of Toblerone on top of the Matterhorn. It wouldn’t look out of place in a thick wooden frame on the wall of a chalet as you tuck into your fondue. This is the best of Swiss design – 60 years old and still going strong.
I love the cover. The simplified, jagged, geometric map of Europe with shapes echoed in the giant yellow ball work so well. The offset composition of the ball bleeding off the page reminds me of a poster that Josef Müller-Brockmann might design. In fact, this programme is the closest one I’ve seen to the great modernist Swiss Style – clean, stylish, non-sentimental – that's so loved by designers.
It’s pocket size (A5), three-colour printing. Those colours aren’t the red of Benfica, nor the blue and maroon of Barça as you might expect. Instead it’s yellow and black; a nod, perhaps, to local side Young Boys. The programme was, after all, designed and printed in Berne, with the final at the city’s Wankdorf Stadium.
I love the cover. The simplified, jagged, geometric map of Europe with shapes echoed in the giant yellow ball work so well. The offset composition of the ball bleeding off the page reminds me of a poster that Josef Müller-Brockmann might design. In fact, this programme is the closest one I’ve seen to the great modernist Swiss Style – clean, stylish, non-sentimental – that's so loved by designers.
It’s pocket size (A5), three-colour printing. Those colours aren’t the red of Benfica, nor the blue and maroon of Barça as you might expect. Instead it’s yellow and black; a nod, perhaps, to local side Young Boys. The programme was, after all, designed and printed in Berne, with the final at the city’s Wankdorf Stadium.
I love the cover. The simplified, jagged, geometric map of Europe with shapes echoed in the giant yellow ball work so well. The offset composition of the ball bleeding off the page reminds me of a poster that Josef Müller-Brockmann might design. In fact, this programme is the closest one I’ve seen to the great modernist Swiss Style – clean, stylish, non-sentimental – that's so loved by designers.
It’s pocket size (A5), three-colour printing. Those colours aren’t the red of Benfica, nor the blue and maroon of Barça as you might expect. Instead it’s yellow and black; a nod, perhaps, to local side Young Boys. The programme was, after all, designed and printed in Berne, with the final at the city’s Wankdorf Stadium.
The inside pages are simple and elegant. Minimal typography (Akzidenz-Grotesk, or similar), a strong grid, asymmetric, with as much white space as a designer could wish for. The delicate keylines and blind columns would still work in Champions Journal now. This was the golden age of graphics and it still resonates today.
As for the football, the team profiles are fantastic, again in that pared-back Swiss style. There is only space for four players from each team – a four-a-side European Cup final? – despite that abundance of white space throughout. The team line-ups and route-to-the-final results are so minimal that they almost look like scientific formulas.
Most of the adverts are also super-stylish. And if you were in any doubt that this final was played in Switzerland then the back cover gives it away: an etching illustration of a bar of Toblerone on top of the Matterhorn. It wouldn’t look out of place in a thick wooden frame on the wall of a chalet as you tuck into your fondue. This is the best of Swiss design – 60 years old and still going strong.
I love the cover. The simplified, jagged, geometric map of Europe with shapes echoed in the giant yellow ball work so well. The offset composition of the ball bleeding off the page reminds me of a poster that Josef Müller-Brockmann might design. In fact, this programme is the closest one I’ve seen to the great modernist Swiss Style – clean, stylish, non-sentimental – that's so loved by designers.
It’s pocket size (A5), three-colour printing. Those colours aren’t the red of Benfica, nor the blue and maroon of Barça as you might expect. Instead it’s yellow and black; a nod, perhaps, to local side Young Boys. The programme was, after all, designed and printed in Berne, with the final at the city’s Wankdorf Stadium.
