PHOTOGRAPHY
with RVB Books/Matthieu Charon & Rémi Faucheux
Using pre-produced images, the students created one or more book models. How do you transform a series of photographs into a book? The Photographic Editions course introduces students to the selection of images, their order, format, graphics, ink, paper and binding. It addresses the specificities of the book as a medium and as a market.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Thomas Mailaender
In the spring of 2024, Thomas Mailaender and the students of the ECAL Bachelor in Photography entered the ruins of the club with the intention of making it resonate once again. Between archaeology, documentary research, and imaginative speculations, the group of adventurers crafted a surprising exhibition path blending mold and glitter, ashes and glamour. For one night, the Corso was filled with explosive sounds and images in a fiery tribute to the nights of Renens.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Natacha Lesueur
Last minute risk As the students enter their final year of training at the ECAL, and their interests and methods take shape, it's time to take advantage of this last project to question our own rules, achievements and influences, not to be satisfied with them, and to take risks.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Maxime Guyon
"Extraordinary Daily Commodities": Everyday Objects What if the objects around us were not mere tools, but autonomous entities with their own essence? Inspired by Graham Harman's Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO), this semester invited students to explore objects from a fresh perspective. Freed from the shadow of our consciousness, they take a place equal to that of humans, animals, and plants. Guided by Maxime Guyon, second-year photography students were encouraged to rediscover what "banal" truly means and dive into a reflection on the place and sensitivity of objects in the contemporary world.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Philippe Jarrigeon, Philippe Jarrigeon
This year, a unique workshop invited students to explore the relationship between an object and its image. By delving into the material properties, history, symbolism, and multiple representations of an iconic object, they sought to understand the aura that defines it. The subject of this first edition? The blue jean. From a simple utilitarian garment to a global symbol of style, the blue jean transcends generations and cultures. Throughout the semester, students were tasked with creating a photographic project or video that both questions and celebrates this emblematic object.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Tamara Janes
The students task is to create their own story, storyline, narrative or sequences based on the existing given images. Using their personal interests, imagination and ideas they link the images together. They can continue the plot of the images, do in-depth research, write fictional stories or tell stories based on personal experiences. The students had the freedom to photograph, generate or film.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Lorenzo Vitturi
The aim of this workshop is to engage students in a multidisciplinary process that combines photography with sculpture and scenography. To emphasize the importance of the creative process, students are encouraged to use primarily collected and recycled materials, which will need to be transformed and integrated into their visual narrative. The work presented at the end of the workshop will reflect this approach, combining visual results with sculptures and ephemeral installations.
PRODUCT DESIGN
with Reed Kram
No Signal! Is the the outcome of an exploratory one-week workshop completed for, and now exhibited in, the Mudac’s exhibition ‘We Will Survive’, which delves into the world of ‘Preppers.’ Guided by designer Reed Kram, students from the MA Product Design program, worked in pairs to create solutions for a hypothetical scenario in which phones no longer work, the internet is down, and grid electricity is unavailable. Faced with this breakdown of modern infrastructure, their mission was to reimagine how we might fulfill one of humanity's most essential needs—communication.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Florence Tétier, Nicolas Coulomb
SPORT - CORPS : Jeux Olympiques et Paralympiques The project is based on the theme of the body, with a view to staging physical effort. The recent context of the Olympic and Paralympic Games logically frames the choice of sport as an aesthetic means of highlighting different forms of bodily expression. The choice of discipline could be classic, out-of-games or even imaginary. The students worked around a certain vision of physical effort, movement, constraint, a form of discipline, or even joy.
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 Laurence Bonvin
Liquid Times Produce a project using photography and video on the theme of fluidity, liquid form and water.
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 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 Anoush Abrar
Beauty shot The week-long Medium format digital workshop is both an introduction to shooting equipment and dedicated software. Students worked in groups to produce portrait images.
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
by Loris Ciaburri, Jonathan Daza Ospina, Loïs de Goumoëns, Sara Dutch, Fei Fan, Pablo Guscetti, Anna Joos, Saleh Kashefi, Theofanis Papadopoulos, Valentina Parati, Antoine Scalese
Students in the Master Film Studies ECAL/HEAD produced documentary vignettes for the Paléo Festival, which were shown for the first time at Visions du Réel in April 2024.
FILM STUDIES
with Alejo Moguillansky
A 1 week filmmaking workshop led by the Argentinian director, screenwriter and producer Alejo Moguillansky with the students of the Master in Film - major direction.
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.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Orsola Valenti
Hors-champ “Showing by hiding, revealing by stealing": for a political practice of the audiovisual image. The main aim of the course is to raise awareness of the political dimension of the audiovisual gesture and give students the tools to distinguish the cinematographic image from the media image. Whereas the latter - flattened, emptied and therefore interchangeable - overwhelms its receptor, rendering it powerless, the cinematographic image liberates emotion and critical reflection. In this way, it goes beyond the supposedly faithful representation of reality.
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.
FOUNDATION YEAR
with Violène Pont, Patrick Monnier, Denis Roueche
Exercise 1: Collecting images in vector graphics Exercise 2: Using the grid between image and text Exercise 3: Memento
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 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 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 Aurèle Sack
The second-year students had to develop the lower-case letters of two display fonts by hand.
GRAPHIC DESIGN
with Robert Huber
Type design research and developmen displayed on a specimen.
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 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 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.
PRODUCT DESIGN
with Chris Kabel
Like Robinson Crusoe scavenged the wrecked ship for materials to build his home, First Year Master Product Design students, guided by Chris Kabel, were invited to delve into the flotsam of their creative minds for this open workshop. The workshop began with collecting, organizing, and analyzing creative flotsam and jetsam to create a self-portrait as a designer. Unrealized projects, obsessions and fascinations, irritations, vague dreams, (bad) jokes, and ideas too weird to talk about—all these resided within a designer's mind. Beginnings already existed: inspiring photos on phones, inviting materials, first ideas hastily scribbled down, quick sketches on paper, half-baked assemblages, or flimsy maquettes. These fragments and particles were analyzed to discover the kind of designer each participant was, extracting a direction for development during the week. This process of analysis, ideation, and translation, including the ‘end result,’ became visible as an island, shaped and populated by each individual's design process. It featured fragile beginnings, iterations, and the choices made along the way, culminating in a final conclusion shaped by material samples, shape research, 3D sketches, the development of a mechanism, a campaign, a film scenario, or whatever else was distilled from the initial flotsam.
FOUNDATION YEAR
with David Monnet, Natacha Donzé
Drawing with an emphasis on research and experimentation from a purely artistic perspective.
FOUNDATION YEAR
with Francis Baudevin, Christian Pahud
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.
MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN
with Alain Bellet
REMIND ME I'M ALIVE is a companion that combines the functions of a fidget toy with those of a personal reminder. The gadget uses information on Wifi connections in its immediate vicinity to better understand the user's environment. By examining these connections - the only gateway to the outside world - the gadget can tell whether the user is in a busy or quiet environment, and even give indications of possible stressful situations. When the user is not interacting with the device, it constantly monitors his or her status via the surrounding wifi connections. These connections provide implicit information on social conditions, working environments, infrastructures and much more. If the user does not communicate with the companion for more than six hours, it “dies” and must be resuscitated. This feature underlines the need for regular interaction and ensures that the companion is always ready for use.
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.): A presentation tool displaying the colors and shades of a product." — 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.
MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN
with Alain Bellet, Mario Von Rickenbach
Using a mixed reality headset, the students used their surroundings as playground. Through creative gestures, each experiment proposes a way of interacting with the environment.
INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
with Christophe Guberan
Second-year industrial design students collaborated with Zurich-based brand FREITAG Lab, leveraging their expertise in environmental awareness, material upcycling, and the circular economy. Using the FREITAG manifesto as a foundation, they developed new shared products centered on the principle of "access over ownership."
FINE ARTS
with Geoffrey Cottenceau, Gina Proenza
Whether it’s a parade, a particle accelerator or a dance ball, SLAP invites you to inhabit a space from a gravitational perspective. Positioned on the boundary between two and three dimensions, the works are subject to centrifugal laws and find themselves exchanging with one another to create fortuitous narratives, as if the continuous round of which they were a part of had suddenly come to a halt. The exhibition space becomes the site of a fundamentally social event - in terms of the works it hosts and the exhibition context - and reveals the social perspective that the works hold in rela- tion to each other. Like a boring chat with a friend of a friend, some pieces are overwhelmed by their conversations, while others lend themselves easily to them. You’ll have no hesitation in intercepting some of the phrases exchanged between the works, while having the opportunity to: reply/nego- tiate/argue with the social time-space that SLAP, as a real static meeting point, offers for an evening.
GRAPHIC DESIGN
by Candice Aepli, Amélie Bertholet, Coraline Beyeler, Delphine Brantschen, Léa Corin, Matteo Cortesi, Mathilde Driebold, Eliot Dubi, Marc Facchinetti, Emilie Müller, Dorian Pangallo, Paul Paturel, Hugo Scholl, Diego Steiner, Cyprien Valenza, Alfredo Venti, Arnaud Wenger, Constance Mauler, Flora Hayoz, Lidia Molina González
An Ode to the Poster 80 Attributes 80 Fonts 80 Posters During this week, the second year students had to create 80 posters, i.e. 4 posters per person. Based on a list of defined attributes, they had to create typography and concepts around them.
GRAPHIC DESIGN
with Eilean Friis-Lund, Alice Vodoz
Mise en scène An exercise centered around the poster format with a typographic approach. The goal is to convey the atmosphere of a film through lettering by graphically staging the text.
DESIGN FOR LUXURY & CRAFTSMANSHIP
with Nicolas Le Moigne, Alexis Georgacopoulos, Xavier Perrenoud, Basil Dénéréaz
For the Watches and Wonders Geneva 2024 trade show, ECAL/University of Art and DesignLausanne has teamed up with Alloyed, a company that specialises in metal printingtechnologies, to present an original collection of watch straps. Designed by students in theMaster of Advanced Studies in Design for Luxury and Craftsmanship programme, thesewristbands have been developed using 3D modelling software, resulting in unique pieces thatgo beyond the limits of traditional techniques. Five of the 15 concepts designed by the students were selected and 3D printed from a finepowder of TI6AI4V titanium—an alloy composed of titanium, aluminium, and vanadium—whosemelting point of around 1,600° Celsius is obtained using a laser beam. Regularly used in theaerospace, and medical industries, this printing technique, known as Laser Powder BedFusion (L-PBF), can be used to create objects with ultra-high-performance mechanicalproperties. Each project, presented in the form of a prototype or animation, finds its inspiration in thebeauty of nature, through organic structures, as much as in complex systems, closer toengineering. This collaboration brings together technology, craftsmanship, and design—withlinks to the world of fine watchmaking—by combining the expertise of engineers specialising inthe science of materials, the know-how of artisan jewellers and their finishing skills, and thecreativity and innovative spirit of up-and-coming designers.
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.