Niklaus Troxler, born in 1947 in Willisau, Switzerland, is a graphic designer, illustrator and concert organiser. Following the completion of his apprenticeship as a typographer, he studied Graphic Design Education at the Art School in Lucerne. In 1971 and 1972 he was the art director for the Hollenstein Création in Paris and in 1973 he opened his own graphic design studio in Willisau. Ever since 1998 he has held the position of a lecturer at the State Academy of Art and Design in Stuttgart, Germany.
Troxler has won numerous awards, including the Cultural Prize of Central Switzerland (1982), 22 ‘Swiss posters of the year’, as well as multiple awards from the Switzerland Art Directors Club, New York Art Directors Club, European Art Directors Club, New York Type Directors Club and Tokyo Type Directors Club. He participated and won prizes in a number of Design and Poster Competitions. His posters have been exhibited at numerous exhibitions, including the Raeber Gallery in Lucerne (Switzerland) and the Reinhold Brown Gallery in New York (USA). His posters can be found in a number of important Poster Collections, amongst others also in the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
“Troxler’s body of poster work is consistent and cohesive. All posters are the same size, printed in the same atelier, and have one overriding theme: jazz concerts and festivals in Willisau. More important, however, is that a Troxler poster is always immediately recognisable as a poster by Troxler, even if one saw them before the text was added. This is all the more incredible since Troxler is all over the map in terms of modern art and design and he playfully draws from them from one poster to the next.”
“Already certain Troxler posters (thanks in no small part to the several books and exhibitions, most notably at the Museum of Modern Art in New York) are already classics. Among them are the McCoy Tyner Sextet (1980), Dexter Gordon Quartet (1978), Don Pullen Quartet (1978), A Tribute to the music of Thelonious Monk (1986) and the 1989 poster for Cecil Taylor.”