This legendary German graphic designer and artist helped create the images that define Porsche
From 1951-ʼ88, brilliant graphic designer Erich Strenger was a key figure in Porscheʼs history. Without Strengerʼs work for its brochures, adverts, manuals, posters and the famous in-house magazine, the visual identity of Porsche would be very different.
Appropriately, Strenger was born in Stuttgart, and developed an early interest in photography and art. He pursued his design interest and specialised in repro-photography, but in 1942 Strenger was drafted into the army. He served all over Europe before being dispatched to the Russian front. After his capture, Strenger ended the war in a PoW camp and was released in 1949.
Sports cars were rare around Stuttgart during the early post-war years, and the sighting of a new red Porsche 356 really impressed Strenger. By chance, in 1951 he met Richard von Frankenberg, Porscheʼs marketing man, at a ʻMiss Cover Girlʼ contest in a local cinema. Von Frankenberg had just started racing, and the two enthusiasts bonded over their mutual admiration for the 356.
Strengerʼs design talents were first employed with a hand-drawn 356 coupé for a brochure cover, but work rapidly increased, including designing the Porsche logo that remains little changed today. Von Frankenberg and Strenger also instigated the in-house magazine, Christophorus, with Strenger as editor in chief.
Strengerʼs most famous work for Porsche was his involvement with Fritz Huschke von Hanstein, the dapper team manager, who from 1951 commissioned a series of victory posters. To maximise the impact of racing success, von Hanstein wanted the posters printed and in showrooms on the Monday after a race weekend, so the pressure was on for Strenger, who was paid DM1000 for each edition. To meet the deadline, the designer would li
