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GRAPHIC DESIGN

MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN

PHOTOGRAPHY

SYNC SCREEN

with Charlotte Krieger, Jean-Vincent Simonet, Florian Pittet (Sigmasix), Vincent Jacquier, Julien Gurtner, Matthieu Minguet, Cédric Duchêne, EPFL+ECAL Lab, Giacomo Bastianelli

For a week, the first-year visual communications students worked on an installation consisting of 15 screens, accompanied by a 360° sound system developed by EPFL+ECAL Lab. This chandelier, five metres in diameter and suspended from a height of three metres, served as a support for their experiments. Using music specially composed and spatialised for the occasion, the students explored the dynamics of sound both visually and in movement.

PRODUCT DESIGN

ECAL X HORGENGLARUS The Future is... Older

by Youssef Bassil, Meri Hozumi, Altamirano Castro Eduardo, Sofia Biondi, Gabriella Duck Garnham, Louis Ferraz, Justus Hilfenhaus, Clémentine Merhebi, Fanny Marrot, Lilian Onstenk, Aurelia Pleyer, Antonio Severi, Loïs Weber, Yichen Wu, Tom Jacquérioz

Who will we be? What will we need? How will we live? What will design offer? “Between 2015 and 2050, the proportion of the world’s population over 60 years will nearly double from 12% to 22%.” — World Health Organization Led by Tutor Sam Hecht and completed by first-year students of ECAL Master Product Design with input from the senior-lab, this project presents a range of objects designed for Horgenglarus that cater to the growing population of elderly users. The aim of these objects is to challenge the stereotypes associated with this frequently medicalised category, while leveraging Horgenglarus’s extensive expertise in wood-based craftsmanship.

INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

BY HAND

with Friederike Daumiller

Even if it seems that digital is taking over analog, there's still an interest and need for us as humans to have a physical connection to our daily tools. So many designers swear by their drawing routine and real-life experimentation still plays a important role in our practices. Under the guidance of Friederike Daumiller students took the challenge to design their own interpretations of hand writing and hand drawing instruments always referring to their hands-on tests and experience.

INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

Figure Libre

with Elric Petit

Figure libre is an industrial design project that empowers students to explore topics of their choice. This semester, guided by Elric Petit, students developed their personal projects inspired by articles from specialized newspapers or magazines. The objective is to create projects with the potential to seamlessly integrate in our contemporary society and its economy, leveraging their personal affinities and interests to enhance their work.

“The Eskimo in the Mojave Desert”: Herbert Matter, a Designer Across Scenes and Genres

with Jonas Berthod, Louise Paradis, Gilles Gavillet

Matter’s career was that of a multidisciplinary, international designer working across commerce and culture. He was not only a graphic artist but also a photographer, type designer, art director, teacher and film-maker. His work in the field of advertising and editorial design, his collaborations with artists, his self-commissioned work, his photography and film outputs and his long-serving position as an educator provide as many entry points to analyse the impact of migration and an international network on a graphic designer’s career. It also provides a case study to analyse the professional model of the designer working as photographer and layout artist simultaneously.

MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN

Much Faster / Much Slower

with Alain Bellet

Fictional mobile apps based on the "Much Faster / Much Slower" theme, offering new ways of consulting, communicating, creating, playing, discovering and learning. Students in their 2nd year of Bachelor Media & Interaction Design designed a dedicated experience and graphic interface via interactive prototypes on Figma.

FILM STUDIES

Fiction film workshop with Carmen Jaquier

with Carmen Jaquier

The 2023 fiction film workshop for 2nd year students was lead by swiss director Carmen Jaquier.

MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN

It's About Time

with Angelo Benedetto

Digital clocks with no temporal reference points, simple representations of the passage of time. Developed on the principle of screensavers, these projects are programmed to evolve graphically according to the time of day. Selection of projects created in the first-year Bachelor Media & Interaction Dynamic Display course with Angelo Benedetto, assisted by Sébastien Matos.

MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN

From A to B

with Kylan Luginbühl

Video sequences realised during the 3D Graphics course led by Kylan Luginbühl. The videos interpret the From A to B theme, a direct exploration of the passage from one state to another. Projects realised during the 1st year Bachelor Media & Interaction Design.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Type Design

with Aurèle Sack

The second-year students had to develop the lower-case letters of two display fonts by hand.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Editorial Design

with Harry Bloch

During the editorial design course with Harry Bloch, the 1st year students developed, during the fall semester, an edition around a personal survey.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Type specimen

with Aurèle Sack

Type design displayed on a specimen.

TYPE DESIGN

Beyond Bézier. Explorations of drawing methods in type design

with Matthieu Cortat, Alice Savoie, Kai Bernau, Radim Pesko, Roland Früh

In the early age of digital type, several methods were explored to draw letterforms. One of them, the Bézier spline, an algorithm that generates curves with a small quantity of data, has the crucial advantage of sparing computer memory and processing resources. It is today the industry standard. This project aims to question and reevaluate it, to move beyond established trends, to develop innovative ideas by exploring alternative methods of drawing curves, and letterforms.

MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN

Tribute to Masterpieces

with Elodie Anglade

Selection of animated sequences made during a 3D course directed by Elodie Anglade. The students were inspired by a painting and transcribed it into three different scenes.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Image Creation

with Guy Meldem

In the course of the Image Creation course taught by Guy Meldem, third year students choose the subject they wish to work on. They develop their own technique and approach to image-making in preparation for their diploma project and their future professional practice.

FOUNDATION YEAR

Expression – Duboux

by Alexandra Cupsa

Visual of the labels designed by Alexandra Cupsa as part of a competition organised by Constance and Jean Duboux for students in the ECAL Foundation Year.

The Manufacture of Type for Typewriters in Switzerland

with Sophie Wietlisbach

Between the 1940s and the 1990s, three companies manufactured type components for typewriters in Switzerland: Caractères SA, Setag and Novatype. During more than fifty years, they supplied the biggest manufacturers of office machines in Europe and around the world, such as IBM, Remington, Olivetti, Paillard-Hermès or Triumph-Adler. Having held a leading position worldwide, the three manufacturers played a key role in the design, development, and production of type components and typefaces for typewriters, as well as for all kinds of impact printers.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

TRANSLATION

with Adeline Mollard

During the visual identity course, the 2nd year Graphic Design bachelors had to produce a communication project based on a translation. They had to define their own translation system and develop a visual language based on these rules.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Fine Art Photography

with Natacha Lesueur

Seduce, they said Based on projects developed around the theme of seduction, students develop a personal, in-depth project over the whole semester.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Editorial Design

with Diego Bontognali

In this half-semester project, students had to work on a daily newspaper article published on a predefined date and develop an editorial concept.

FILM STUDIES

Fiction film workshop with Lionel Baier

with Lionel Baier

The 2023 fiction film workshop for 1st year students was lead by Lionel Baier.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Editorial Design

with Diego Bontognali

The semester project consists of two editions with identical content but different formats. Construct content from a news report, to produce two editions.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

So, how can we live better?

with Nicole Udry

Beyond questions of functionality, comfort and individual or collective well-being, the built environment is capable of responding in a stimulating way to societal, energy and environmental challenges. Workplaces, homes, public spaces, interiors and streets are all driven by real statements of intent that motivate their design. The 2nd year Graphic Design students worked on a communication based on one of these principles (or others) and on the architectural creation that refers to it in order to promote it.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN

PHOTOGRAPHY

PROJECTIONS XXL

with Sami Benhadj, Vincent Jacquier

An immersive and magnetic visual environment, created by ECAL students, illuminates the facades of the mudac and Photo Elysée building. As part of an interdisciplinary project within the Visual Communication department of ECAL, students in the Photography, Graphic Design and Media & Interaction Design Bachelors programs developed immersive video projects designed to adorn the facades of Photo Elysée.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Automated Photography at Foto/Industria

with Milo Keller, Marco De Mutiis

The MAST Foundation is presenting the seventh edition of Foto/Industria, the world's first biennial event devoted to photography of industry and work, at a number of historic venues in Bologna and at MAST. The 12 exhibitions in Foto/Industria 2023 represent a chronology of points of view on the theme of PLAY, from the end of the 19th century to the present day. They offer an opportunity to observe and delve into the research of a selection of international artists. The ECAL is presenting an exhibition of its research project Automated Photography. An increasing number of images are produced autonomously by machines for machines with a gradual exclusion of any human intervention. Automated Photography is a research project developed by the Master Photography that addresses this situation by examining the technologies of image production and distribution such as: machine learning, CGI, photogrammetry.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Self-Initiated Project - Fall 2023 - MAP2

with Elisa Medde

This module assists the students to develop a long term project - touching upon all stages from the idea to the final presentation. Students will have the opportunity to take some of the ideas and project from the previous semesters, in order to explore them further, or engage in brand new ones. The outcome of the project could take any form - from book to performance, from physical exhibition to digital presentations. A strong emphasis will be on the research/concept and the impact, experience of the outcome.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Self-Initiated Project - Fall 2023 - MAP1

with Milo Keller

The course is a platform for the development of personal projects that arise from the desire and curiosity of each student. The basic concept of the work must be relevant to the field of contemporary photographic images. Each project can take a different form depending on the specificities, contents and inclinations of each participant. From books to multimedia installations, from performance to CGI, group discussions will articulate a plural vision of photography’s applications today.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Applied Photography - Fall 2023

with Charles Negre

STILL LIFE PAPER - This course focuses on the ability to answer a commission within its own artistic practice and leading the students through a better understanding of studio photography, challenges of constructed images and their processes. This applied photography course has an emphasis on still life photography, our aim is to sharpen the students sensitivity to photographing and interpreting objects. For this semester, the group of students will develop their own printed magazine focusing on the practice of still life.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Photobook - Fall 2023

with Bruno Ceschel

The module introduces students to the history of photobooks and artists’ books prompting them to study different strategies and approaches to contemporary book-making. That will lead to students individually working on a publication that will be presented at evaluations in January 2023. Students will have the opportunity to create a new body of work in relation to the book form, learning about editing, sequencing and designing.

PHOTOGRAPHY

MAP Books 2023

with Bruno Ceschel

These publications are special editions produced within the framework of the Master in Photography at ECAL in 2023 for Bruno Ceschell's Photobook class. This curated selection was later showcased at Offprint during Paris Photo, providing a prestigious platform to exhibit and share the emerging talent in the field of photography.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Image creation

with Guy Meldem

During the Image Creation course with Guy Meldem, the students had to develop a two-color teaching manual, with the aim of teaching a particular skill. Each project takes the form of a 16-page booklet with two different types of printing.

FINE ARTS

FILM STUDIES

FINE ARTS

FILM STUDIES

Archive as a Creative Act: The Absolute Cinema of Gregory J. Markopoulos and the Temenos Utopia

with François Bovier

Artists who produce archives from their own work approach archival activity as a creative gesture: here, the archive literally becomes a work of art. In parallel with the “archival impulse” that has run through contemporary art since the 1960s, this research project examines the “performative agency” of archives when they are constituted from “image acts”. The selected corpus is based on an extremely singular case, the cinematographic work of Gregory J. Markopoulos (1928-1992) and the Temenos archives.

UNITE DE THEORIE

FINE ARTS

The Raving Age. Histories and figures of youth

with Vincent Normand, Stéphanie Moisdon

This research project questions what has come of youth – a conceptual, aesthetic, and political figure that was born with modernity – in the visual arts, popular culture, and the humanities. Conversely, the project addresses what the problematic category of “youth” has brought about in contemporary art and thought.

INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN

A Third Hand – Creative Applications for Robotics

with Alain Bellet, Andrea Anner, Thibault Brevet, Martin Hertig

Robotic arms have long been a common sight in many industries. They are currently making a rapid entry into art and design studios and practices. Yet, at the same time, difficulties remain in accessing the workflows and work methods demanded by these machines given a clear lack of reference resources suited for this community. The same applies to Art and Design schools, which are increasingly investing in this type of equipment, often without having the resources to run it. This research project uses applied case studies to explore and define a set of exemplary work methods, capable of both informing and inspiring future users.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Image creation

with Guy Meldem

During the Image Creation course with Guy Meldem, the students had to develop a publishing project based on comics. Each project takes the form of a 16-page booklet with two different types of printing.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

So how can we live better

with Nicole Udry

Beyond questions of functionality, comfort and individual or collective well-being, the built environment is able to respond in a stimulating way to societal, energy and environmental challenges. The work space, the living space, the public space, the interior space, the street, are carried by real statements of intent that motivate their forms, following certain principles such as climate transition, densification, ecology and energy transition.... The 2nd year Graphic Design students worked on the production of a communication based on one of these principles (or others) and on the architectural realization which refers to it in order to promote it.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Information Design

with Angelo Benedetto

During the information design course the students have been asked to design a cartographic poster based on a film in the road movie genre, in a direct or abstract representation.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Editorial Design

with Diego Bontognali

During this editorial design course, the students had to research and compile texts around a theme, based on a selection of texts and songs.  The idea was to produce two editions with identical content but different formats.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Type specimen

with Aurèle Sack

Type design displayed on a specimen.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Collector

with Adeline Mollard

During the visual identity course with Adeline Mollard, the students had to develop an identity project promoting a collection chosen by them. Each project includes the design of a catalogue contextualising and presenting the collection, together with the design of a triptych of posters.