Gegen Siebenschläfer National Zeitung (Karl Gerstner)

Designed in 1959 by Karl Gerstner for Basel’s progressive National-Zeitung (National Newspaper), this striking beauty transforms an alarm clock into a powerful metaphor for civic alertness. Operating through his agency GGK, Gerstner used crisp, objective photography to frame the morning paper as an antidote to societal slumber. The text “gegen Siebenschläfer” cleverly weaponizes a German idiom for "late sleepers" or hibernating dormice,* positioning journalism as a wake-up call. By diagonally angling the newspaper’s name to mirror clock hands pointing to early morning, Gerstner tells us when it’s time to get up and smell the news. Now preserved in MoMA’s permanent collection. Soon there will be a copy in your permanent collection. *Do you know what a dormice is? It’s plural for dormouse. Do you know what a dormouse is? We didn’t. It’s an agile mouse-like rodent with a hairy or bushy tail, found in Africa and Eurasia. Some kinds are noted for spending long periods in hibernation.