Following his study of fine arts at the Munich Art Academy, Ludwig Hohlwein became one of Germany’s best-known and most successful advertising artists, who played a key role in shaping the Art Deco aesthetics of the 1920s and 1930s. After the turn of the century, Munich, along with Berlin, had become an influential hub in the field of poster design, providing the platform for a constructive dialogue between art, design and an increasing awareness of visual brand identity and product design. From today’s perspective, Hohlwein can undoubtedly be described as one of the key inventors of corporate design and corporate identity. Thanks to their inventive and confident use of strong color planes, elegant lines, and skillful use of typography, notable posters like the 1912 panther motif for the Munich Zoo continue to shape our visual memory to this day. The artist primarily worked in the field of luxury goods, such as cigarettes, coffee, sportswear, hunting accessories and records. In this gouache work, Hohlwein explicitly referred to the style of Japanese woodblock prints which became popular collector’s items at the end of the 19th century. His posters are part of prominent collections, among them the Library of Art History of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, the Münchner Stadtmuseum and the German Poster Museum, Essen. [KT]