As there were far too many Josef Müllers in his country, JMB added his wife’s surname to his own. In Zürich he studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule and University (architecture, design and history of art). After an apprenticeship he started his studio in Zürich, specializing in photography, graphics and exhibitions, including the Swiss National Expo 1939. JMB was a founder and co-editor of the trilingual magazine Neue Graphik (1968). He taught at the Kunstgewerbeschule, the Ulm Hochschule für Gestaltung and at universities in Japan and the US. He was the European design consultant for IBM (a counterpart of Paul Rand), was responsible for the signage of Zürich Airport, designed the corporate identity for SBB Swiss Railways, and made theatre sets in Munich, Copenhagen and Zürich. Being a great adept of ‘the grid’, he wrote books including Grid Systems in Graphic Design (1981), The History of Visual Communication (1971), History of the Poster (1971) and Foto-Plakate (1989).