Born in Bern, Max Schneider completed an apprenticeship in graphic design at Kurt Wirth’s studio. Like many of this renowned master’s protégés, Schneider enjoyed an excellent, extremely productive training period. He then moved to Milan, where he spent two years working at Studio Broggeri, then the beating heart of modern Italian graphic design. Walter Herdegg employed Schneider as a layout designer at Graphis, where he worked until 1957 before joining the advertising department at Swissair. Under the direction of Fritz Girardin, he designed not only the airline company’s poster and advertisement campaigns, but also all of its advertising material, from menus and passenger information leaflets to communications with travel agencies and business clients.

In 1960, Schneider went freelance and continued to produce work for Swissair until 1965, alongside work for other clients such as the Schweizerische Verkehrszentrale (Swiss Tourist Office) and the Zurich tourist office. After this, he was a partner at the advertising agency Hermann & Schneider for 17 years. He sought to gain further knowledge by attending the SAWI (Schweizerisches Ausbildungszentrum für Marketing, Werbung und Verkauf – Swiss training centre for marketing, advertising and sales) seminars for advertising managers, before once again establishing his own studio in Hettlingen, Zurich. Schneider, himself a passionate rider, created the house advertising for the German National Reining Horse Association. In 2005 he retired from commercial graphic design, instead devoting himself entirely to painting and iron sculpture.