PHOTOGRAPHY
with Natacha Lesueur
Documentary, the power of make-believe. Based on projects developed around a common theme, the students develop a personal, in-depth project around the theme of pretense. They build a project that plays with the limits of veracity in photography, using it as an artifice of deception.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Laurence Bonvin
Waliking in Renens A collaborative project in which students were asked to choose a local shop in Renens and to create a documentary project combining images of still life, architecture and portraits.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Olivia Schenker
Hot N Cold By making a very short film, students learn fundamental notions in the narrative, visual and conceptual development of video production. The project provides essential technical skills in shooting, lighting, camera movement, sound recording, editing and post-production.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Anoush Abrar
The workshop week 4x5 is both an introduction to the 4x5 technical camera and a way to kickstart a photographic project. Students experience the process of analog shooting, from development to large format printing. This intense week is highly technical, but also focused on developing a photographic language, allowing for a better understanding of the fundamental workings of photography.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Charlotte Krieger
The aim of this course is to introduce students to the creation and management of a complex photographic project involving sets, characters and lighting. The theme is free.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Calypso Mahieu
Waliking in Renens A collaborative project in which students were asked to choose a local shop in Renens and to create a documentary project combining images of still life, architecture and portraits.
FILM STUDIES
with Kaltrina Krasniqi
Each year, students of the Master's program undertake a "Great Trip" to discover the territory of a filmmaker. In 2022, they went to Kosovo with the director and screenwriter Kaltrina Krasniqi.
PRODUCT DESIGN
with Camille Blin
On the occasion of Paris Design Week 2024, DECATHLON is partnering with ECAL's Product Design Master's programme to unveil "Sortir du Cadre", an installation showcasing two prototypes of electric-assisted trekking bikes based on research into eco-design. Through this collaboration, DECATHLON engages the younger generation of designers around eco-design themes. These concept bikes, envisioned by students from Product Design Master’s programme, express a vision of the future in which sustainable development and the pleasure of outdoor activities go hand in hand.
with Julien Gurtner, Vincent Jacquier, Matthieu Minguet, Anthony Guex
As part of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the canton of Vaud has commissioned ECAL to create an original work of art, on view from July 24 to September 8 in the Maison suisse set up for the occasion in the courtyard of the Swiss Embassy in Paris. Comprising some twenty synchronized screens offering a panoramic view of the canton and its major assets, Vaud-o-rama aims to promote the region and forge links with the public, helping them to discover its richness and diversity. Inspired by the diorama museal device, this installation offers a dynamic and immersive showcase for the canton of Vaud, highlighting four key areas: Innovation, Education, Culture and Sport. It presents a varied portrait of the canton and offers a current view of its activities. In this way, the canton of Vaud reveals itself as a center of excellence for research and innovation, a cutting-edge learning ground, a mecca for cultural creation and a sports ecosystem that is unique in the world.
FILM STUDIES
with Alessandro Comodin
The 2024 documentary film workshop for 2nd year students was lead by french italian director Alessandro Comodin.
GRAPHIC DESIGN
with Delphine Brantschen
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
with Aurèle Sack
The second-year students had to develop the lower-case letters of two display fonts by hand.
GRAPHIC DESIGN
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 poster.
GRAPHIC DESIGN
with Robert Huber
Type design research and developmen displayed on a specimen.
GRAPHIC DESIGN
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
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.
GRAPHIC DESIGN
with Angelo Benedetto
During the information design course the students of the second year have been asked to design a cartographic poster based on a film in the road movie genre, in a direct or abstract representation.
FOUNDATION YEAR
with David Monnet, Natacha Donzé
Drawing with an emphasis on research and experimentation from a purely artistic perspective.
GRAPHIC DESIGN
MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Angelo Benedetto, Vincent Jacquier, Pauline Saglio, Calypso Mahieu
During the Service Design course, the 3rd year of the Graphic Design, Photography and Media & Interaction Design bachelors had to create multi-media projects. A collaboration of the Visual Communication department which had as subject the SDGs (*Sustainable Development Goals). The theme was called "For a good cause, make the SDGs a reality" and its objective was to allow students to develop a cause that is close to their hearts. Each project consists of at least two different media, one primary and one secondary. These projects could take any form that the students deemed relevant, be it a website, editions, posters, a video sequence or virtual reality.
GRAPHIC DESIGN
with Guy Meldem
During the Image Creation course with Guy Meldem, students explored the benefits of AI. Feeding the machine with their own illustrative style, they were able to generate a certain quantity of images, enabling them to produce a graphic novel, a collection of images or other types of illustrated editorial work.
INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
with Julie Richoz
"Nuancier (n.m.): Material for presenting the colors and shades of a product." - French Larousse definition For this project, the students created and developed their own shades, surfaces, assemblies or materials, which they then shaded in several samples and assembled to create their own nuancier.
GRAPHIC DESIGN
MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN
PHOTOGRAPHY
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.
FOUNDATION YEAR
with Tonatiuh Ambrosetti, Daniela Droz
Exercise 1: Still life and portrait work, between studio and location Exercise 2: Short work based on experimentation Exercise 3: Narrative series Exercise 4: Series of images linked to the music Mind if I stay by Kadebostany
PRODUCT DESIGN
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
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
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.
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
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
with Carmen Jaquier
The 2023 fiction film workshop for 2nd year students was lead by swiss director Carmen Jaquier.
MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN
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
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.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Nicolas Poillot
The "Commission & Photography" course aims to conceptualize and produce visual content for an editorial series, emphasizing applied photography and collaboration with an Art Director. It allows students to explore various photographic territories such as editorial, documentary, fashion, still life, and fiction. Objectives include understanding editorial commissions, conceptualizing and presenting ideas, as well as effectively collaborating with an Art Director. Students are required to produce a series of images while adhering to the given theme and constraints, while also developing preliminary research, a structured methodology, series architecture, and finding solutions to creative problems encountered. The theme involves each student selecting and photographing three personal objects that are particularly meaningful to them.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Laurence Bonvin
Endurance In this course, the objectives are to allow students to experiment with new approaches or techniques regarding past, ongoing, or diploma projects. They also have the opportunity to revisit and refine subjects that have not met their satisfaction in terms of concept, form, technique, or execution. This experience aims to expand ideas, refine techniques, continue unfinished work while improving it, or build a more comprehensive body of images. Endurance lies at the heart of this process, whether it's persevering in completing a project, revisiting an idea until it's exhausted, or overcoming obstacles such as lack of time, self-confidence, or courage. This semester thus offers students the opportunity to confront their limits, surpass them, and achieve their best in their endeavors.
GRAPHIC DESIGN
with Aurèle Sack
The second-year students had to develop the lower-case letters of two display fonts by hand.
GRAPHIC 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
with Adeline Mollard
During the visual identity course, the 1st year Graphic Design bachelors had to realize a communication project around a district where they live.
GRAPHIC DESIGN
with Aurèle Sack
Type design displayed on a specimen.
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
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
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
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.
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.
with Quang Vinh Nguyen, Cynthia Ammann, Chi-Long Trieu
Cà phê (coffee), atisô (artichoke), xi nê ma (cinema), căng tin (canteen) or xi-măng (cement): in the Vietnamese language, many words bear the imprint of a French origin. And what if the same were true of everyday objects? Somewhere between cultural anthropology, the epistemology of Vietnamese design and the sociology of objects, this research project analyses the production of objects in Vietnam in the light of French colonisation and decolonisation.
GRAPHIC DESIGN
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
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
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
with Lionel Baier
The 2023 fiction film workshop for 1st year students was lead by Lionel Baier.
INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
with Tomas Kral
Small, medium and large. For this project, students were asked to develop a coherent family of three vessels, or simply three independent containers, each with a different volume for holding, transporting and pouring liquids. Each object had to fit into a specific context, defined by the students at the beginning of the project.
GRAPHIC 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
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.