with Jonas Berthod, Davide Fornari
This project investigates the work of the graphic designer and artist, Warja Lavater, an internationally recognised Swiss graphic designer, illustrator, bookmaker, filmmaker and artist.
with Davide Fornari, Jonas Berthod, Chiara Barbieri
The research project investigates the discourse on graphic design in Switzerland in the under-researched period from 1980 to 2020. While the 1950s and 1960s saw graphic design in Switzerland reach international recognition and commercial expansion under the label “Swiss style”, a paradigm shift emerged in the following decades. The attention of many practitioners turned away from design as a pure service for the industrial and service sector and moved towards cultural commissions on a local, national and international level. Instead of aiming for maximum return, they chose their commissions according to whether they promised them creative freedom and whether they contributed to the profiling of their portfolio in alignment with their new definition of the profession as a lifestyle. This project examines the emergence and the development of this phenomenon, which became known as “cultural graphic design”, in professional graphic design in Switzerland.
with Davide Fornari, Jonas Berthod
The research project Swiss Graphic Design and Typography Revisited is divided into three sub-projects: ‘Principles of Education’, ‘Networks of Practice’ and ‘Strategies of Dissemination’. This three-year project is the biggest research collaboration established in the design field since the SNSF began its activities.
with Davide Fornari, Matthieu Cortat, Jonas Berthod, Chiara Barbieri
Jan Tschichold’s essay Die neue Typographie (The New Typography, 1928) is a game-changing book, acclaimed as the curtain raiser of modern graphic design. While it takes the form of a critical essay and an operative manual, its sources have been understudied because of their difficult identification. This project aims to reconstruct the body of sources that Tschichold drew on to understand the broader cultural context of the book, through an international conference on its impact and a travelling exhibition.
with Calum Douglas, Philippe Fragnière, Maxime Guyon, Benoît Jeannet, Marvin Leuvrey, Calypso Mahieu, Nicolas Polli, Jean-Vincent Simonet, Justinas Vilutis Anniina Koivu, Davide Fornari, Carolien Niebling
The Fuori catalogo research project calls into question the way we think about the life cycles of contemporary design objects by shifting focus from a product’s birth and lifespan to its “end moment”.
LECTURES
On Wednesday, April 26, 2023, ECAL welcomes scholars from the fields of art and design history and print culture for an international conference aiming to provide a better understanding of the cultural context of Jan Tschichold's book and the typographic movement that emerged from it.