“Swiss team” hosts a panel on Swiss style and migrations at the 10th ICDHS Conference in Taipei, Taiwan
On the occasion of the 10th International Conference on Design History and Studies hosted at National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (October 26-28, 2016), a group of members of the research project Swiss Graphic Design and Typography Revisited has convened the audience for various papers.
On Thursday 27 October, Robert Lzicar and Davide Fornari (SGDTR coordinators) opened the panel titled “Le Style Suisse n’existe pas: How Migration Shaped the ‘Graphic Design Nation’”. The idea of Swiss graphic design and typography and its dispersion through migrations was at the core of the three presentations, framed by the awareness of how “migration” has become a debated issue since the Swiss referendum of February 2014.
The dissemination of the theories developed in Switzerland throughout the 20th century, which have shaped the international practice in graphic design and visual communication until today, can be traced back to the migration of objects, people and ideas, as well as to corresponding economic and political decisions. The panel discussed different forms, meanings and consequences of internal and external migration in the context of Swiss graphic design.
Leslie Kennedy (expert and contributor of sub-project A) presented a paper titled “The International Weiterbildungsklasse für Grafik, Basel School of Design 1968-1988: Dispersing ‘Swiss Style’ through Education”, reporting on the dissemination of a Swiss model of teaching and learning graphic design. Davide Fornari displayed the very first results of his archival research with “Walter Ballmer: Designing Networks Between Switzerland and Italy”. Sara Zeller (PhD candidate in sub-project C) together with Robert Lzicar analyzed in an original way a series of posters focusing on Swiss stereotypes, “Exporting Swissness: Swiss Traditions and Visual Stereotypes in Contemporary Graphic Design”.
The panel argued that migration contributed to the development of “Swiss graphic design” from a style towards an asset part of the national heritage. Its candidature to UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage has made mandatory a critical discussion of the branding of Switzerland as a “graphic design nation”. Full room and vivacious debate ensued, proving a strong and worldwide spread interest in the topic.
Further contributions to the subject beyond the panel were delivered by Davide Fornari and Giovanni Profeta with the poster “Swiss Style Beyond the Border: Swiss Graphic Designers in Italy” involving an infographic on the migration movement of designers between Italy and Switzerland and by Sarah Klein (PhD candidate in sub-project A) presenting her paper “Migrating Method: Eidenbenz' Early Systematic Course in Lettering”.
