Swiss Graphic Design and Typography Revisited
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.
Swiss graphic design and typography are representative of Swiss culture, but have themselves also had an impact on this country’s national identity. In the SNSF project ‘Swiss Graphic Design and Typography Revisited’, seven universities engage in joint research into the status of Swiss graphic design from today’s perspective. Coordinated by the Bern University of the Arts, researchers of the universities of applied sciences from Basel, Geneva, Lausanne, Lugano, and Zurich, as well as from the University of Bern are participating.
In the three sub-projects, mixed groups of researchers from the different institutions investigate into different aspects of Swiss graphic design – its teaching, its networks and its forms of publication.
The result is a critical contribution to our understanding of the emergence and current self-perception of Swiss graphic design and typography. Above and beyond this, the project helps to consolidate ‘design history’ as a field of research and practice in Switzerland, and provides new, relevant findings for the international scholarly discourse on visual communication.

www.sgdtr.ch

Participants
FHNW HGK – Academy of Art and Design Basel
HKB – Berne University of the Arts (Main applicant)
University of Berne, Institute of Art History
HEAD – Genève – Geneva School of Art and Design
ECAL – Ecole cantonale d’art de Lausanne 
SUPSI – University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland
ZHdK – Zurich University of the Arts

Applicants:
Arne Scheuermann
Michael Renner
Sarah Owens
Peter J. Schneemann

Co-coordinators and researchers:
Davide Fornari
Robert Lzicar

Researchers:
Chiara Barbieri
Rudolf Barmettler
Roland Früh
Jonas Niedermann
François Rappo

Doctoral students:
Jonas Berthod
Sandra Bischler
Constance Delamadeleine
Ueli Kaufmann
Sarah Klein
Sara Zeller

Partners
Aiap – Associazione italiana design della comunicazione visiva 
Federal Office of Culture
Graphis
Museum für Gestaltung – Schaudepot
Swiss National Library
ZHdK – Zurich University of the Arts – Medien und Informationszentrum MIZ, Archiv ZHdK

Period
Ongoing, October 2016 – September 2019

Funded by the SNSF (Swiss National Science Foundation)