Collaborations

PHOTOGRAPHY

Nnormal × ECAL

with Nicolas Poillot

In September 2024, the start of the academic year was marked by the launch of a collaboration with the trail equipment brand Nnormal. At the same time, Kilian Jornet, the brand’s founder, made headlines by climbing 82 Alpine peaks over 4,000 meters, setting a new record. Like trail running, photography requires passion, discipline, and endurance. The Bachelor Photography students may not be athletes, but they pursue their own visual feats, pushing boundaries to craft a unique language in an image-saturated world. ECAL has a long tradition of collaborating with top-level professionals who are eager to share their experience with a new generation in search of direction. One such figure is Régis Tosetti, artistic director at Nnormal and a former Visual Communication graduate at ECAL, who initiated the project alongside Nicolas Poillot, head coach and art director, known for his blend of fashion and documentary work. A longtime guest lecturer at ECAL, Nicolas has guided students with clarity and precision through the brand’s visual identity. In a noisy world overloaded with stimuli, this collaboration offered students an escape into the mountains—a space for communion, imagination, and adventure. There, bodies and landscapes meet, connected by the shoes that allow us to go further. But beyond the object itself, the students’ projects express ecological values, contrasting atmospheres, organic and technical textures, and bodies straining toward effort and release. And as in trail running, despite careful preparation, the unexpected often leads to new forms of beauty.

PHOTOGRAPHY

ECAL × SDOL, Horizon Ouest, Regards sur la métamorphose urbaine

with Matthieu Gafsou

New transport infrastructure is emerging, while former industrial wastelands are giving way to modern buildings and redesigned outdoor spaces. Gradually, residents are moving into these new neighborhoods and adopting new habits.  To capture the first moments of life in these spaces, the association "Ouest lausannois: Prix Wakker 2011" has invited second-year students from the ECAL Bachelor of Photography program to observe them throughout 2024. This project highlights 18 ongoing construction sites or recently completed neighborhoods. Through their perspectives, the students offer original approaches to discovering, understanding, and appropriating these new spaces.  Photography maintains a unique relationship with the world around us, as it often depends on it. Far from merely documenting reality in a strict sense, it has the power to transfigure and reveal the invisible or the unspeakable. This is the approach adopted by the ECAL photography students at the request of the "Ouest lausannois: Prix Wakker 2011" association, as they explored various territories in western Lausanne. As part of this commission, each student was randomly assigned a specific location—be it a new neighborhood, a construction site, or a distinctive building—on which they worked over an academic year. Faced with spaces that were sometimes unphotogenic or even resistant to imagery, the challenge was to look beyond appearances, to resonate with these places in order to grasp their unique dynamics. The photographs question our perception of these recent landscapes and bear witness to the human activity unfolding within them. What do they reveal about our ways of living and moving? Who are the people inhabiting these spaces? What new landscapes emerge from these rapid transformations?  Through approaches that are sometimes sensitive and intimate, sometimes detached and analytical, or even driven by a formal fascination with the objects captured, the works presented reveal the density and diversity of everyday life. They bring forth a poetic vision of the city, inviting us to consider these territories not merely as functional backdrops but as fully-fledged spaces, rich with history, form, and identity—fluid and multifaceted, just like those who inhabit them.

DESIGN FOR LUXURY & CRAFTSMANSHIP

Watches and Wonders Geneva 2025 ECAL x Ceramaret

At the invitation of Watches and Wonders Geneva, ECAL will present a brand-new project in partnership with Ceramaret, a leading Swiss company in the manufacture and high-precision machining of technical ceramics. To mark the occasion, a selection of five jewellery and bracelet designs will be on display at the LAB, a venue dedicated to innovation and design. Thanks to this first collaboration with the Neuchâtel-based manufacturer, students in MAS Design for Luxury and Craftsmanship got to discover a state-of-the-art machine park. Renowned for developing and producing components for the luxury watchmaking industry, Ceramaret’s teams contributed their expertise to this ambitious research. Combining innovation with creativity, the project brings together the know-how of specialised engineers in materials science and the boundless inventiveness of an up-and-coming generation of designers. Following the presentation of the students’ 15 concepts, five designs were selected and prototyped in technical ceramics, using additive technologies – a 3D printing process that provides the possibility to create intricate, previously unimaginable shapes. This collection, including bracelets inspired by fine watchmaking and innovative jewellery designs, draws its inspiration as much from the beauty of organic forms as from the complexity of systems derived from engineering.

PRODUCT DESIGN

Heat Pumps for Viessmann

with Augustin Scott de Martinville

Heat pumps are energy-efficient household climate systems essential for transitioning to renewable energy and combating climate change. Typically installed outside close-by to buildings, they are becoming common visual elements in urban landscapes, often resembling air conditioners with limited design variety across brands. To reimagine these essential typologies, Viessmann, a world leading Heat Pump producer, invited MA Product Design students from ECAL to develop innovative concepts, resulting in designs that challenge norms and explore new visual identities of heat pumps.

INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

ECAL x AGO - Seoul Highlights

with Adrien Rovero

AGO Lighting has come together with ECAL Bachelor students in Industrial Design, under the guidance of Swiss designer Adrien Rovero, to conceive a collection of lighting installations to be used in public places such as museums, hotel lobbies, coffee bar and so on. Focusing primarily on the spatial aspect of light, our approach was to design lighting structures based on components supplied by AGO and inspired by the fabric of Seoul, rather than creating mere lamps.

INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

ECAL X KVADRAT - SUIT UP

with Stephane Halmai-Voisard

For this project, the students had to design a seat, or rather requalify and rehabilitate a chair or armchair using existing models such as the monobloc, aluminium bistro chair, or deck chair, as the base structure. Employing Kvadrat upholstery textiles, the designs had to be reversible, meaning it should not alter the existing structure. While the original function of the chair could be maintained or altered, the proposals aimed to improved the comfort and aesthetic character of the seats.

PHOTOGRAPHY

ECAL x AREA OF WORK - CO-EXISTENCE

with Area Of Work, Milo Keller

ECAL/University of Art and Design Lausanne has teamed up with Paris-based studio Area of Work at Paris Photo to present CO-EXISTENCE, a monumental immersive installation in the heart of Paris’s 11th arrondissement, from 7 to 9 November 2024. In a large metropolis, a small, seemingly empty apartment reveals discreet traces of human presence. On another scale, a conquering population manifests itself. Wings flap, slime trails, antennae shivers... In the industrial setting of the former Garage République in the 11th arrondissement of Paris, CO-EXISTENCE showcases a living cohabitation through a sequence of artificial images created using Computer Generated Imagery (CGI). These spectacular yet intimate photo-realistic projections highlight the imperceptible, the infra- thin, and the invisible, blurring the scales between micro and macro. Developed during three series of workshops conducted from 2023 to autumn 2024 by Area of Work, CO- EXISTENCE bears witness to the technical and artistic skills that are honed within the ECAL MA Photography. These workshops enabled students to transpose their photographic skills into the virtual space of 3D graphics to understand the temporal, artistic, and commercial issues involved in creating CGI. ‘This collaboration offered ECAL students an introduction to the tools and possibilities of 3D graphics, exploring their integration into the processes of creating photorealistic and hyper-realistic images, while highlighting the importance of the artistic and cinematographic dimensions that are at the heart of our identity.’ – Amine Ghorab & Scott Renau, Area of Work, Paris. Founded in Paris in 2018 by artists and directors Amine Ghorab and Scott Renau, Area of Work is known for its distinctive contemporary visual narratives, blending graphic framing and rigorous photographic direction. Specialising in fashion, luxury, and technology, the creative studio has become a major player in contemporary visual storytelling..

PHOTOGRAPHY

ECAL × JEAN PAUL GAULTIER: SPORT - CORPS

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.

PRODUCT DESIGN

SORTIR DU CADRE – ECAL + DECATHLON

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.

INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

ECAL x FREITAG - Access over ownership

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."

DESIGN FOR LUXURY & CRAFTSMANSHIP

Watches and Wonders Geneva 2024 ECAL x Alloyed

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.

INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

BELLE RIVIERA X ECAL

with Adrien Rovero

For the member municipalities of GEDERIVIERA, the waste management perimeter of the Vaudois Riviera, students in the BA Industrial Design are envisioning a new public trash can.

INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

USM Design Grant - 6th Edition

with Christian Spiess, Fondation USM, Théâtre de Vidy

The USM Design Grant is a study grant launched by the Fondation USM to encourage innovation by rewarding a student’s project. For the 6th edition of the USM Design Grant awarded by the USM Foundation, ECAL Bachelor Industrial Design students, under the guidance of Swiss designer Christian Spiess, were asked to design new outdoor seating for the terrace of the Théâtre de Vidy in Lausanne.

PHOTOGRAPHY

BLI × ECAL

with Matthieu Gafsou

The collaboration between the ECAL and the BLI touches on contemporary issues that are of particular concern to students at the school: our relationship with minorities and the appropriate way of representing them. For a long time, a paternalistic anthropological attitude was tolerated and even encouraged in the world of photography. Attitudes have changed, and the young artists at the ECAL have developed a relationship of equals with the various communities they have encountered. Creating the images required a language that enabled the students to position themselves in relation to others and to establish protocols in line with their own values and those of the people on the other side of the lens. The images give us a complex, multifaceted panorama of our city's cultural diversity, and show us that encounters and mixes are possible and fruitful. Matthieu Gafsou, photographer and teacher.

DESIGN FOR LUXURY & CRAFTSMANSHIP

Upcycling Design

with Nicolas Le Moigne, Bethan Laura Wood

For the second year, students from the MAS in Design for Luxury and Craftsmanship were invited to create objects based on the container produced for La Prairie's flagship range. The glass packaging bears the signature cobalt blue that defines the Swiss brand's Luxe Skin Caviar collection, the result of a meeting with Niki de Saint Phalle in the 1980s. Noticing the vivid cobalt blue in the world-famous artist's paintings and sculptures, La Prairie enquired about the significance of this blue in her work. For Niki de Saint Phalle, this resplendent hue, her favourite colour, symbolised femininity, boldness, strength and serenity, describing it as "the colour of joy and luck". With the help of glassmakers based in Switzerland, these glass containers were cut, drilled or sandblasted to give the object a function, while retaining the brand's codes.

PRODUCT DESIGN

Ecal for Schätti

with Camille Blin

ECAL for Schätti is a inspiring collection created by ECAL’s Master students in Product Design, under the guidance of Camille Blin, head of the programme, Jörg Boner, designer and Thomas Schätti, co-owner of the company Schätti. In the lighting industry, Schätti is synonymous with high quality manufacture and proven know-how. The brand is driven by a modernist vision and a fresh perspective: “The lighting industry is in upheaval; LED technology is the center of attention. A significant research and development effort is devoted to this technology. Light is being redefined.” A premise that ECAL students followed to create portable, battery powered LED lamps. The result is a multifunctional collection featuring the potential of this technology. Collapsible or foldable, wall or desk lamp, portable and rechargeable, indoor or outdoor: the selection translates Schätti expertise and ECAL students' creative minds.

PRODUCT DESIGN

U.F.O.G.O. Wind Turbines

with Camille Blin, Anniina Koivu, Anthony Guex, Marvin Merkel, Arthur Seguin

In 2023, the significant role of renewable energies in tackling the environmental crisis is blatant. In this context, wind power has once again been presented as a promising avenue for regions seeking to transition to renewable energy. However, concerns about their visual intrusion on surrounding environments pose a significant obstacle to their deployment. From a design perspective, this aesthetical factor is not insurmountable. On the contrary, it highlights the need for greater consideration of how we shape these technologies and integrate them into the environment and our lives. This project, completed by 16 MA Product Design Students of ECAL, has set out to explore how wind turbines can fit into natural landscapes and cultures not only sensitively, but beautifully – if we focus on their design. To complete the project effectively, a case study location was required. Fogo Island (Newfoundland, Canada), described locally as "this rock in the battering Northern Sea," was chosen due to its natural beauty, abundant wind, and tight-knit community of approximately 2,500 inhabitants. The island's climate and geography make it ideal for wind turbines. Additionally, Fogo Island is home to Shorefast, a non-profit organization dedicated to building a sustainable, renewable economy for the island. In October 2022, the students and tutors of ECAL visited and immersed themselves in Fogo Island. The project resulted in eight speculative yet practical wind turbine designs, considerately informed by various perspectives. U.F.O.G.O. is a sustainability project  grounded in reality, but not limited by what already is. Collaboration Partners: Shorefast HEIG-VD/School of Management and Engineering Vaud (Marc Pellerin, Philippe Morey and Marco Viviani) Media Partner: Disegno Funding: Summer University Programme of the Board of Higher Education (DGES) State of Vaud HES-SO Recherche Transdisciplinaire en Durabilite (under the project title 'INTEGRATED WIND TURBINES’)

INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

Summer University Finland — ECAL toys with ARTEK

with Stephane Halmai-Voisard, Julie Richoz

Teaming up with iconic Finnish furniture company Artek, Bachelor Industrial Design students, under the guidance of designer Julie Richoz, present a collection of playful objects for children made from salvaged b-quality, rejected and half- finished materials and offcuts. Staying true to the spirit of Artek and its founders, the products promote conscious manufacturing and seek to highlight the natural materials that have gone into producing these designs.