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INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

Victorinox x ECAL

with Philippe Malouin

In collaboration with the renowned cutlery brand, students from the Bachelor in Industrial Design drew inspiration from the iconic Swiss Army Knife to create original and innovative concepts.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Analog Medium format workshop – 2026

with Anoush Abrar

Deconstructed Portrait The goal of this workshop, led by photographer Anoush Abrar, is to explore the meaning of the contemporary portrait.  Working with the concept of the “deconstructed portrait,” the students created an image in pairs.  The Digital Medium Format workshop week serves as an introduction to both photography equipment and specialized software.

PRODUCT DESIGN

ECAL AT THE FESTIVAL DES CABANES, VILLA MÉDICIS, ROME

with Camille Blin

For the 2026 Festival des Cabanes at the Villa Medici in Rome, students from the Master in Product Design were invited to develop a project related to the Villa's garden, in collaboration with the renowned Italian ceramics manufacturer Mutina. The Villa's gardens offer a rich historical and spatial context, conducive to exploring aesthetics, function, and interaction with visitors. Students had access to the entire Mutina catalogue (tiles, bricks, and other materials) to build their installations. The project was selected and mentored by the French designer Ronan Bouroullec, ECAL, Villa Medici and Mutina.

INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

WOOLWEAR

with Herding Wool, Ugo Bompas

This immersive workshop explored footwear design through the materiality of wool.

MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN

A Story for a Shape – Workshop avec Mélanie Courtinat

with Mélanie Courtinat

Ce workshop explore la paréidolie, notre capacité à projeter du sens et des émotions sur des formes abstraites. À partir d'une primitive géométrique (cube, sphère, cône...), matrice fondamentale de tout univers numérique, les étudiant·e·s en binômes doivent concevoir une expérience en réalité virtuelle. En s'appuyant sur une synchronisation précise entre l'espace physique et un environnement Unreal Engine, le projet transforme ces objets fixes en supports narratifs.

DIGITAL EXPERIENCE DESIGN

RE-STRUCTURE

with RNDR STUDIO

During this one-week workshop, Master Digital Experience Design students used machine learning tools to decompose music videos into their constituent parts: segmented scenes, detected gestures, extracted colors, analyzed beats, separated audio stems, transforming linear audiovisual artifacts into structured datasets. These components were then reimagined as interactive, non-linear systems: explorable maps, generative timelines, rhythm-driven interfaces, and self-recomposing structures built with the OPENRNDR framework.

PRODUCT DESIGN

ECAL X GOOGLE - A Message From Tomorrow

with Chris Kabel

The Industrial Design team at Google (Google ID) initiated a collaboration with ECAL/University of Art and Design Lausanne to develop a concept for a mobile-focused product inspired by a daily ritual. ECAL’s Master Product Design students were invited to envision innovative hardware engaging with contemporary habits. Through compelling storytelling, these conceptual projects consider the human dimension of mobile technology: how it shapes everyday gestures and how our relationships with devices might evolve in the future. This collaboration reflects ECAL’s forward-looking approach to design, combining experimentation, critical thinking, and a strong receptivity to emerging technologies.

PHOTOGRAPHY

ANALOG MEDIUM FORMAT WORKSHOP

with Anoush Abrar

DRIVE For this week’s theme, “Drive,” first-year photography students were asked to create a portrait shot on medium-format film. Inspired by the sensation of a first driving experience, travel, empowerment, or discovery, the week aimed to explore the relationship between one or more people and a vehicle.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

PHOTOGRAPHY

Le livre d’artiste - 25/26

with Anouk Schneider Agabekov, Nicolas Polli

As part of the magazine course led by Anouk Schneider and Emmanuel Crivelli, second-year Visual Communication students had the opportunity to design a magazine during the second semester. Students were encouraged to fully embrace their artistic freedom at every level of creation, whether in terms of format, paper choice, binding, layout, illustration, text, or typography. In this course, the magazine can take shape through various forms of illustration, such as photography, reproduction, contextualization, drawing, 3D, and more. The focus is placed on the author’s artistic vision and the means used to bring it to life. Students take on multiple roles as editor, curator, and architect, assuming the responsibilities of art director, designer, photographer, stylist, illustrator, typographer, editor-in-chief, and editorial secretary. This course highlights contemporary editorial design by exploring the narrative potential of a carefully crafted content sequence.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN

PHOTOGRAPHY

ECAL Light House

with Jean-Vincent Simonet, Léonard Guyot, Florian Pittet (Sigmasix), Vincent Jacquier, Julien Gurtner

During a week of collaborative work, first-year students in the Visual Communication department at ECAL were given the ambitious task of creating a complete audiovisual experience, designing a light and sound architecture based solely on five original musical compositions. Using a central totem-like screen installation and projections on the surrounding walls, enhanced with lasers, they created a visual environment, broadcast in real time, which was presented as a performance to the public at the end of the week. The aim was to construct a universe capable of fully utilizing the space and the various stage elements, inviting the audience to move around and experience the live performance in its entirety. Five cross-functional creative groups, each with a different sound base, were supervised by Jean-Vincent Simonet and Léonard Guyot to produce images and test them throughout the week on the device, which was developed, set up and operated by a sixth group under the supervision of Florian Pittet, Matthieu Minguet and Achille Masson.

Digital Clean Up Week – 2026

with Jamy Herrmann, Achille Masson, Julien Gurtner, Vincent Jacquier

From March 16 to 20, ECAL is taking part in Digital Cleanup Week, a worldwide event dedicated to raising awareness and taking action for a more responsible digital world. A week to repair, recycle, clean and think!

MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN

Screen Design – 2025

with Harry Bloch

Websites developed over the course of a semester based on books chosen by students, which they adapted into web experiences as part of Harry Bloch's Screen Design course, second year of the Bachelor's degree in Visual Communication.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

GEOFF HAN – WORK AND TURN

by Leandra Adler, Cansu Celen, Layana Comte, Anaïs Dermont, Camille Genoud, Eve Gremaud, Eloïse Guillod, Mathis Harmant, Marie Hintzy, Matteo Lucca, Maxime Manera, Gaëtan Mauclair, Mathys Mauron, Emma Morisseau, Sara Pedersoli, Lucie Pittet, Hélène Prongué, Leonardo Mariucci, Alice Refachinho, Justine Renevey, Gaspard Schlatter, Laura Simons, Vu Toni Thien Duc, Maïa Yassin, Jonas Zesiger

In November 2025, 27 ECAL students took part in Work and Turn, a workshop led by Geoff Han exploring the theme of labor and the often overlooked work that sustains the school. Located in a former IRIL knitwear factory in the industrial area of Renens, ECAL occupies a vast building whose daily functioning depends on many visible and invisible forms of labor. Over five days, students worked in small teams to produce a collective 96-page pocket-sized publication. Each pair created an 8-page photographic visual essay focusing on a specific aspect of labor at ECAL. Rather than relying on traditional portraits, the projects explored more poetic and indirect ways of documenting traces of work through spaces, gestures, materials, and infrastructures. The entire publication was manually printed on an offset press by the students themselves, in either black or red and black. The printing process was a central part of the workshop: participants prepared the plates, set up the press, and ran the prints. This hands-on production process echoed the theme of labor explored throughout the publication.

MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN

Betaverse – 2026

with Mario Von Rickenbach

This project brings together a series of experiments created by students exploring the intersection between physical reality and immaterial imaginary worlds. Using a mixed reality headset, they transform their environment into experimental spaces where real elements become supports for digital creations.

MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN

Talk to me – 2026

with Alain Bellet

By combining code, electronics, and physical prototyping, first-year students design interactive objects that react, respond, and invite interaction, gathered under the title Talk To Me. Using dialogue as playground and inspired by conversational interfaces, the projects transform physical objects into new forms of interaction.

DIGITAL EXPERIENCE DESIGN

The Modular Mindset

with Antonin Waterkeyn

From connected watches to large-scale billboards, digital interfaces now operate across all scales. Designing a visual identity in this context requires thinking in terms of systems that can adapt to multiple formats, uses, and rhythms. This workshop explores the creation of modular, animated identities for a fictional music label, drawing on motion design and procedural logic. Using Cavalry, students develop dynamic visual systems that transform according to precise rules, while maintaining graphic coherence and a strong relationship to the sound universe.

MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN

Beyond The Screen – 2025

with Angelo Benedetto

Beyond the screen - is a series of interactive machines developed by students in their first year of Bachelor Media & Interaction Design. These systems are inspired by the relationship between instructions and execution within a computer system. These machines create text through a modular typographic system.

FILM STUDIES

Workshop with Benoît Dervaux

by Noé Bregnard, Eva Rust, Victor Durand Matinella, Lou Haenggi, Samuel Harari, Hana Magimel, Nolan Grando, Mileny Viera de Andrade, Zélia Zanone

Second-year Bachelor's students attended a workshop with Belgian cinematographer Benoît Dervaux, known for his work on the Dardenne brothers' films. He was responsible for the cinematography on the Swiss films Laissez-moi by Maxime Rappaz (2023) and À bras-le-corps by Marie-Elsa Sgualdo (2025).

MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN

COUNTDOWN – 2025

with Mario Von Rickenbach

The students worked on an interactive countdown in a web environment. Each day, they were tasked with creating a new sketch, culminating in their own collection, which could also be combined with projects from the entire class.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Workshop - CGI WITH AREA OF WORK – 2025

with Area Of Work

The Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) Workshop is an introduction to 3D creation software that allows you to create images with photographic qualities that are not photographs.  This workshop centers on the theme of “Minimal,” inviting students to explore the creative and technical foundations of contemporary CGI image-making. It emphasizes materiality and the expressive impact of reduction. Every form, light, and texture has a specific role, negative space guides the emotional tone, and fine details unify the composition.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Maisie Cuisine Book

with Maisie Cousins

The aim of this workshop, led by photographer Maisie Cousins, is to use photography as a tool to broaden our powers of observation. During the week, students explored macro photography to create miniature and abstract worlds using everyday objects and accessories. This invites us to reflect: what else are we overlooking in our immediate environment?

PHOTOGRAPHY

ECAL x Polaroid Foundation

with Douglas Mandry

This workshop brought together ECAL graduate artist Douglas Mandry, the Polaroid Foundation, and around thirty Bachelor Photography students. They had the exceptional opportunity to work with a camera that produces Polaroid films in a 40 × 60 cm format and weighs nearly 200 kg. This experience was made possible thanks to its operators, John Reuter and Harriet Browse, who introduced the students to the use of this unique device and the Polaroid Foundation team. Douglas Mandry provided the project’s artistic direction and supported the students in their experiments carried out directly with and on the films. The final result was presented as a collective exhibition on ECAL’s premises, revealing a particularly rich diversity of approaches and visions.

MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN

Digital Attention

with Irene Pereyra

Where does our attention go? In this workshop, first-year students become their own data researchers for 24 hours, observing when and why their phone draws focus. They track triggers, emotions, recovery time, control, context, apps used, duration, body language, energy, and inner dialogue. These everyday traces are then transformed into a one-page scrollytelling experience, a visual story of how attention moves through a day.

TYPE DESIGN

Glass gilding workshop with Eddy Bennet

with Eddy Bennett

In this analogue workshop, students merged the ornate lettering styles of the late 19th century and the meticulous craft of reverse glass painting and gilding with their personal perspectives on type design. Thanks to Gold Leaf Supplies for supporting us with material!

MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN

Audio Reactive Festival Poster Series

with Talia Cotton

First-year students designed a series of audioreactive posters for a music festival. They utilized dynamic tools and live data input to explore sound-responsive visuals within social media's digital format, creating a cohesive and recognizable festival identity.

PHOTOGRAPHY

ECAL × NNORMAL

with Nicolas Poillot

In September 2024, the start of the academic year at ECAL / University of Art and Design Lausanne, was highlighted by the beginning of our collaboration with trail equipment manufacturer Nnormal. At the same time, not far from our university, Kilian Jornet, the founder of the brand, gave our teams a taste for exploits by linking 82 peaks in the Alps over 4,000 meters high, shattering all records in the process. In trail running, as in photography, you need passion, discipline and endurance. Our Bachelor Photography students at ECAL are not all great sportsmen and women, but they are driven by the desire to achieve visual exploits. Trained in technical mastery, conceptual development and risk-taking, they spent three years in a field of exploration that allows them to seek out limits and chart their path. It's essential for them to get off the beaten track and find a visual language that sets them apart from the vast quantity of images that overwhelm us. ECAL has a long tradition of collaborating with top-level brands and professionals who, in addition to their own activities, wish to pass on their skills and experience to a passionate young generation looking for guidance in unfamiliar territory. Among them is Régis Tosetti, artistic director of Nnormal, who has a strong link with ECAL, where he trained for a degree in Visual Communication in 2005. Régis kicked off this collaboration with head coach Nicolas Poillot, also an art director. Nicolas forged his raw and elegant style by taking fashion towards the documentary. A guest lecturer at ECAL for several years, he has guided students tirelessly, with pragmatism and rigor, through the mapping of the brand and its visual expression. In a polluted, noisy world, saturated with superimposed stimuli, it is difficult to concentrate, to focus on a clear objective, a goal to look forward to. The opportunity offered by the collaboration between ECAL and Nnormal has encouraged a young generation of photographers to turn to the mountains. Nature is a terrain of escape, communion and adventure for an essential imagination made up of bodies and landscape. The main subject is the mediating element between these two components, the shoes that allow us to go further in this union. But there's much more than shoes in the work of Nicolas and his students: there are values of ecology, dry and wet atmospheres, solar and nocturnal lights, technical and organic textures, muscles and tense faces that achieve deliverance through their exploits. And finally, in trail running as in photography, despite sood technical and mental preparation and systematic study of the forecasts, there are unforeseen circumstances that force us to come up with improvised solutions that reveal new forms of beauty.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN

PHOTOGRAPHY

Video Clips – 2025

with Sami Benhadj

Music video projects created within the framework of the Sequence course supervised by Sami Benhadj. Each 2nd-year student in the Graphic Design, Media & Interaction Design & Photography Bachelor programs produced an individual music video. Taking an existing track as a starting point, every project sought to translate the music into images, exploring visual storytelling, rhythm, and staging. Students were encouraged to experiment and develop a creative and personal approach, resulting in original graphic worlds where sound and image resonate with one another.

INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

ECAL x MICASA - HOMEWORKS

with David Glättli

Founded in 1981, micasa has built its reputation on accessible, high-quality design and has grown into Switzerland’s leading furniture brand. Committed to democratic design that integrates seamlessly into everyday life, the company partnered with ECAL to develop HOMEWORKS, a limited-edition collection that invites a new generation to reconsider how living spaces are shaped and how design can become an active, meaningful presence in daily routines.

MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN

Betaverse 2025

with 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.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

ALICE FRANCHETTI WORKSHOP – RICHARD NEUTRA

with Alice Franchetti

During this workshop, each student was tasked with designing a poster inspired by the architectural legacy of Richard Neutra. Drawing from his modernist philosophy and formal principles — clean lines, transparency, strict geometry, and integration with the landscape — each student visually reinterpreted Neutra’s ideas within a 2D graphic format.