Born in Basel in 1942, Georg Staehelin studied graphic design at the Allgemeine Gewerbeschule Basel vocational school from 1958 to 1963, attending classes taught by Armin Hofmann and Emil Ruder. He worked with Gérard Ifert in Basel and Paris from 1963 to 1964, at Total Design in Amsterdam from 1964 to 1966, and at Crosby/Fletcher/Forbes in London until 1969. Back in Switzerland, Staehelin opened the Pentagram Design studio in Zurich, which he managed until 1977 before going on to work in his own studio for visual design. At the same time, he taught photography classes at the design school in Zurich until 1990. Some of his most significant works include posters for the design museums in Basel and Zurich, corporate design for Bally, Wohnbedarf Zurich, the furniture manufacturer Lehni and the St. Gallen-based fashion company Akris. From time to time, Staehelin enhanced the precision of his work to make statements with maximum impact, playing with the conventional effects of typography in subtle and surprising ways.