ECAL Talent Day,24.06.2026,ECAL, Renens Dedicated to young graduates and professionals alike, the “ECAL Talent Day” event aims to build bridges between academia and the professional world by offering the opportunity to meet and network. This annual event, open to professionals only, enables them to connect with our 2026 Bachelors and Masters graduates in Fine Arts, Cinema, Industrial & Product Design, Graphic & Type Design, Media & Interaction Design, and Photography. ECAL Talent Day creates a unique opportunity to meet the next generation of creative talents and explore their latest work. Spanning across all sectors of the creative industries, the event provides a dynamic and enriching networking environment for both attendees and graduates.DATES & SCHEDULEWednesday, June 24, 2026 From 10am to 4pmVENUEECAL Av. du Temple 5 1020 RenensREGISTRATIONRegistration required by Friday, June 12, 2026. Registration formCONTACTStalentday@ecal.ch
ECAL A Typographic Atlas in New York,22.06–02.08.2026,The Cooper Union, New York For its fourth stop, the exhibition ECAL A Typographic Atlas is presented in New York by The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art and the Herb Lubalin Study Center of Design and Typography. Presented as a typographic atlas, this traveling exhibition features a selection of 300 typefaces created by ECAL s Master Type Design and Bachelor Graphic Design students. The exhibition is structured around a single indexing approach, a system translated into a modular display designed by Adrien Rovero. Alphabetical entries and numerical coordinates form a navigational framework, inviting visitors to move through a typographic territory. Typography is treated as a visual, cultural and linguistic practice, from experimental forms to functional families and multiscript projects, encouraging us to reconsider how type mediates everyday communication. The project also takes the form of book of the same name, produced by Giliane Cachin and Eurostandard and published by Empire Books, which unfolds like a vast map covering the full range of genres across the contemporary typographic spectrum. The showing of this exhibition at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science is part of the 12th edition of the Typographics Festival, an annual event series focused on contemporary typography and where its future may lie. The opening will be accompanied by a talk by four graphic and type designers from ECAL s staff and alumni. It will introduce the audience to the mixed practices of graphic and type design through the diploma projects of three graduates and the evolution of their practice, bridging the skills of font production with the broader perspectives of art directors and graphic designers. Previous stops Turin – Circolo del Design Leipzig – HGB Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Paris – Program/me Next stops Montreal – UQAM Los Angeles – HMCT Gallery Lausanne – ECAL Zurich Tokyo – SKWAT Kameari Art Centre and more to come...ADDRESSThe Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art The Herb Lubalin Study Center of Design and Typography 41 Cooper Square, New York, United StatesHEAD OF PROGRAMMES, DATES23.06–02.08.2026 Closed on July 3 & 4 Free admissionEXHIBITION OPENING & TALK22.06.2026 5:00pm-9:00pm Talk in-person & livestreamed, 6:30pm The Rose Auditorium, Cooper Union Inscription In the presence of: Angelo Benedetto , Head of ECAL Bachelor Graphic Design Rebekka Hausmann , type & graphic designer, alumna and assistant of ECAL Master Type Design Sean Kuhnke , type & graphic designer, ECAL Master Type Design alumni Nayoung Kim , type & graphic designer, ECAL Master Type Design alumni OPENING TIMESMonday to Friday: 12:00–7:30pm Saturday: 12:00–5:30pmSUPPORTED BYPresence SwitzerlandRELATED EVENTS
Création photographique– 2026 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.
Création cinématographique– 2026 Off-camera By exploring what lies outside the frame, students develop a sensitive and reflective approach to audiovisual creation. Throughout the semester, students are encouraged to reflect on the political and formal issues surrounding the moving image, as well as the relationship between the visible and the invisible.
Lea Favre s film at 2026 Nuits en Or Congratulations to Lea Favre, graduate of the Bachelor Cinema, whose film Hunting was selected by the César Academy for the 2026 Nuits en Or. Les Nuits en Or is an yearly event which brings together a selection of films honored by Cinema Academies around the world. In 2026, the program features 36 short films and is presented in several major cities: Athens, Lisbon, Luxembourg, Madrid, Mexico City, Rome, Vienna, and others. The program for Les Nuits en Or 2026 was unveiled for the first time during a screening event at MK2 Nation in Paris. Hunting (2025), the Bachelor Cinema graduation film directed by , is part of this selection. In this animated short film, Lea sets out in search of a subject for a documentary film. Upon arriving at the stadium overlooking the city — her hunting ground for the day — she meets an older man who is unlike any other. Just as she thinks she has finally caught her prey, the tables turn. The hunter becomes the hunted. Hunting has already won numerous awards, including Best Film at the 2025 Fantoche Internationales Festival für Animationsfilm (Baden), Best Graduation Film at the 2026 Swiss Film Awards, and the Golden Horseman Youth Jury at the 2026 FilmFest International Short Film Festival (Dresden). The film has also been screened at numerous festivals in Europe and around the world. @leafre_ @academiedescesar Image: Valentin de Steur
Staged Photography – 2026 Unseen This course introduces students to the creation of a seven-image series built around the theme Unseen. They will learn to combine set design, characters, and lighting to produce strong, coherent staged images. Through a practical and technical approach, the course develops their ability to conceive and manage a complete photographic project, direct models, work with natural and artificial light, and collaborate under conditions similar to professional editorial or commercial shoots. Students will refine their photographic vision while preparing for the creative and technical demands of the industry.
8 ECAL graduates win the Swiss Design Awards 2026 Following the nomination of 16 of its graduates as finalists for the Swiss Design Awards 2025, ECAL is proud to announce that 8 have been awarded this prestigious distinction by the Federal Office of Culture. ECAL is particularly proud to see 8 of its graduates honoured at the 2026 Swiss Design Awards – winners who were already among 16 finalists from ECAL, including renowned names from the art and design scene as well as recent graduates: Product Design Carlo Clopath , Bachelor Industrial Design graduate iiode, Lucas Uhlmann , Bachelor Industrial Design graduate Lion Sanguinette, Master Product Design student Titouan Longatte , Bachelor Industrial Design graduate VITA Mini Sensor — A miniaturized plant electrophysiology sensor developped by the research project Arboricrop, conducted by a multidisciplinary consortium bringing together Vivent Biosignals, Changins – University of Viticulture and Oenology, and ECAL with the support of Innosuisse. Research team: Pietro Alberti, Bachelor Media & Interaction Design graduate / Maxwell Ashford , Master Product Design graduate / Alain Bellet , Bachelor Media & Interaction Design lecturer / Stéphane Halmaï-Voisard , MAS Design for Luxury & Craftsmanship graduate and head of Bachelor Industrial Design / Laurent Soldini , certified industrial designer Graphic Design Dorian Pangallo , Bachelor Graphic Design graduate Outline Online, Samira Schneuwly & Laura Zsófia Csocsán , Master Type Design graduates Sophie Wietlisbach , Master Type Design graduate Media and Interaction Design Livia Schmid , Bachelor Media & Interaction Design graduate Mario Von Rickenbach , Bachelor Media & Interaction Design lecturer Photography Cedric Zellweger , Bachelor Photography graduate Eriko Miyata , Master Photography graduate Florian Amoser , Bachelor Photography graduate Inès Mermoud , Bachelor Photography graduate Karla Hiraldo Voleau , Master Photography graduate Sara De Brito Faustino , Bachelor Photography graduate Design research Beyond Bézier, Nicolas Bernklau , Master Type Design graduate; Matthieu Cortat , head of Master Type Design; Roland Früh , Master Type Design lecturer; Raphaela Haefliger , Master Type Design graduate This wide range of disciplines reflects ECAL s cross-disciplinary approach, where creative excellence is expressed both individually and in collaborative and interdisciplinary projects. ECAL warmly congratulates its graduates on this wonderful recognition. swissdesignawards.ch
Kiefer Hablitzel Göhner Art Prize for Iulia Bucuresteanu Congratulations to Iulia Bucuresteanu, ECAL Master Fine Arts student, for winning the Kiefer Hablitzel Göhner Art Prize. Master Fine Arts student brings together a video, two cast-aluminium sculptures, and a concrete relief in a project that examines the complexities of post-socialist transformation. Her installation offers a lucid, unsentimental, and non-prescriptive perspective on a society negotiating the transition from its Soviet legacy toward aspirations of prosperity and self-determination. In the video Megalomania, the camera traverses a succession of urban landscapes, moving from monumental Soviet architecture to the remnants of unrestrained capitalism. The work unfolds through a series of striking contrasts: from the promise of consumer abundance embodied in oversized advertisements for luxury goods to the vacant stalls of covered markets; from intimate domestic interiors to the presence of stray dogs inhabiting public space. Through its dynamic editing and carefully constructed soundtrack, the film infuses this portrait of contemporary Romania with a sense of vitality and subtle irony. Drawing on emblematic sites, symbols, and everyday objects associated with Eastern Europe, Bucuresteanu foregrounds the marginal position to which these regions are often consigned within the enduring narrative of a cohesive and unified Europe. Her practice resists reductive binaries and familiar clichés, instead rendering visible the fractures, contradictions, and tensions that emerge between political and economic ambitions, the construction of national identities, and the lived realities of individual experience. In February 2026, the jury selected seventeen artists from a pool of 175 applicants in an initial round and invited them to participate in the exhibition presented as part of the Swiss Art Awards in Basel. Following a second round of evaluation, seven emerging artists were awarded the Kiefer Hablitzel | Göhner Art Prize 2026, each receiving CHF 15,000. The prize is open to Swiss artists, artists based in Switzerland, and artists enrolled at Swiss universities, and is awarded in close collaboration with the Swiss Federal Office of Culture (BAK) and the Ernst Göhner Foundation. kieferhablitzel.chImage (c) BAK/OFC, Gina Folly, 2026
ADIAF 2026 Emergence Grant for Ange-Frédéric Koffi Congratulations to Ange-Frédéric Koffi, an ECAL Master Fine Arts graduate, on receiving an Emergence Grant from the Association for the International Promotion of French Art. The Association pour la diffusion internationale de l art français (ADIAF), which brings together 300 contemporary art collectors, is supported by patrons and works in close partnership with public institutions. The association notably organizes the Marcel Duchamp Prize in collaboration with the Centre Pompidou, as well as the triennial exhibition De leur temps, which showcases works from the collections of its members. Since 2022, the ADIAF Emergences Grants have aimed to support the international professional development of new generations and promising talents of the French art scene. One grant is awarded to an “Art Critic and/or Curator,” two are dedicated to “Artists – Open Call,” and the final “Art Schools” grant rewards the work of an artist or collective who is about to graduate or has recently done so. Born in 1996 in Korhogo, Ivory Coast, Ange-Frédéric Koffi is a graduate of ECAL, Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University, the Haute École des Arts du Rhin, and the University of the Western Cape. An artist, curator, and art historian, he received the grant for art critics for his curatorial practice. His practice conceives the exhibition as a critical space, a site for the production of knowledge as much as a means for creating tension between narratives. Through his projects, Ange-Frédéric Koffi examines regimes of visibility, the economics of the image, and the political conditions of display, particularly in contexts marked by colonial legacies. His work is grounded in investigation, dialogue, and the interconnection of diverse forms of knowledge. Ange-Frédéric Koffi notably curated the exhibition FANON Antinomies (Abidjan, 2025), and his research has been published in the journals Médiévales and Kronos, as well as presented at international conferences. Ange-Frédéric Koffi is also a Foam Talent laureate (2022) and has held residencies from the Josef & Anni Albers Foundation (Carraig-na-gCat, Ireland) and at Black Rock Dakar. In 2026, he will be guest curator of the Mulhouse Photography Biennale and associate curator of the 15th Rencontres de Bamako, the African photography biennial. He will also publish Settled, an editorial project that builds upon his curatorial research. © Rebecca Topakian - ADGAP Paris, 2026 @colligit.truncis www.adiaf.com
Omar Bassil – Esplanade Esplanade is an exploration of how a flat-cut piece of leather can be transformed into a slip-on shoe through folding, wrapping, gathering, and minimal joining using simple tools. Stripping leather shoemaking down to its essentials, form emerges through tension and wear. Referencing the carbatina, a Roman shoe typology constructed from a single piece of leather, the design adapts its pattern principle to a contemporary slip-on. While the construction is reduced to a few essential operations, the making process still relies on the expertise of leather workers and techniques specific to their craft. This approach yields a simple, relaxed, and enduring object as a reflection on craftsmanship and material honesty.
Ehrat Lee – Lightworks Lightworks is a lighting system that gives images a fixed place in the home. Photographs, graphics and drawings are saved constantly but mostly stay hidden on phones, in books or in drawers. Built around existing industrial processes, a single UV-printed sheet of paper forms the curved shade, held by a lightweight aluminium structure and fixed with magnets. The lamp disassembles flat and ships inside its own print tube, the image rolled within. Available in three sizes, it turns each print into an illuminated object. Prints can be exchanged in seconds, from personal images to commissioned work.
Moritz Engel – CALYX CALYX is a minimalist climbing sandal. Designed for optimal hygiene and maintenance, it reduces the conventional mixed-material, climbing shoe to a textile-free exoskeleton. It is built around a durable rubber core with replaceable, wear-indicating Vibram soles and features "Debond-on-Demand" adhesive, which allows for resoling during use and separation for downcycling at the end of its life. While the sticky climbing shoe rubber soles provide the usual performance, a secure and adjustable fit is made possible by easily interchangeable laces. Thanks to its foldable and packable design, CALYX is ideal for the purist climber who strives for maximum feel and feedback with minimum weight.
Carl Johan Jacobsen – Vaev Vaev is chair made from a simple rigid frame that supports a custom made net. Normally used for fences, this net becomes a seat providing comfort while maintaining a light and open expression. The combination of these elements creates a chair that feels visually light yet structurally defined, allowing light, air and rain to pass freely through it. Durable enough for outdoor use and subtle enough for interior spaces.
Carolien Janssens – Alpen Alpen is a trail running vest designed for runners with breasts. A trail running vest is a lightweight garment used to carry water, nutrition, and equipment during mountain runs while fitting tightly against the body. However, current products continue to be engineered with a single body type in mind: a relatively flat torso. Even women s models remain a shrunk version of men s products, causing pressure points across the bust. This project starts from a feminine body geometry. Conceived by experimentation with paper modelling and the 3D pattern-making software CLO, Alpen offers a volume-creating front panel, a dual closure system that allows independent adjustment above and below the bust, and a dual sizing system combining torso size and bust volume, similar to bra sizing.
Finn Johnson – Draft – 2026 #1 Draft is a sheet metal bicycle frame developed in collaboration with EPFL s Geometric Computing Laboratory. The frame is drafted from a flat pattern and assembled from six pieces of laser-cut aluminum. The shape is created through a computational tool that generates complex freeform geometry from flat sheet material. The bicycle is a medium to showcase this method, realized as a functional object for the first time.