Upcoming: Insight into the Typoswiss collection. Thursday, 29 January 2026, 7 pm

Collector Matthias Gut, also known as Typoswiss, is opening his archive for the first time and offering an exclusive insight into his extensive collection of brochures and catalogues from Swiss furniture manufacturers and producers. Many of these companies worked with renowned graphic designers whose work has had a significant impact on the visual identity of Swiss design history.
This small panopticon offers a rare opportunity to discover original advertising materials and typographical treasures from several decades.

Location: Josefstrasse 188, 8005 Zurich, in Robert Wettstein's studio.
Registration

NDGGRANT 2025: Submission deadline extended to Sunday, 14 December 2025

Dear colleagues

NDGGRANT supports NDG members in their professional activities related to researching, discussing and disseminating design history and design culture. If you are currently working on a project that could benefit from a 5'000 CHF grant, give it a try! Find out more about participating here.

We extend the deadline to December 14, 2025.

Yours sincerely,
The Board of the Design History Network

Upcoming: Dine & Tell. Dinner together, Tuesday, 18 November 2025, from 6.30 p.m. in Zurich

Direct contact between NDG members is a key concern of the network. The Dine & Tell format combines discussion with dinner. At the Lebanese restaurant Za'atar, we discussed what has moved us in terms of design history over the past year.

Guided tour, Talk and Apéro at the SIK-ISEA Institute, Wednesday, September 17th

The Swiss Institute for Art Research is a competence centre for art scholarship and art technology of national and international importance. Its activities focus on research, documentation, knowledge transfer and services in the field of fine arts. SIK-ISEA opened its doors in the beautiful Villa Bleuler for an exclusive NDG event. A guided tour introduced the comprehensive activities of this institution. In conversation with Roger Fayet, director of the institute, the interfaces between art and design history was discussed. It was followed by refreshments.

Show & Tell with Mònica Gaspar about the exhibition Madrugada. Jewellery and the Politics of Hope. Tuesday, August 26, 2025 in Zurich

The Madrugada exhibition (Design Museum Lisbon, 2024) offered a perspective on the topicality of political expression in contemporary jewellery. With around 200 works by artists from over 30 countries, the exhibition brought together different generations, design and art disciplines and different cultural geographies. As co-curator of the exhibition, Mònica Gaspar talk about the displayed works and the challenges that the theme and production of the exhibition posed to the team.

Show & Tell with Tale Designstudio. Tuesday, 8 July 2025 in Münchenstein / Basel

Tale Designstudio was founded by Noël Oegerli, Philipp Gilgen and Norbert Meier. NDG member Noël and Philipp gave us an insight into the studio's work, such as the upcycling project SWISS Recraft Collection with Swiss International Air Lines. For this project, the designers transformed parts of a decommissioned Airbus A321 into high-quality accessories and furniture. The minimalist objects tell fascinating design stories using the original aircraft materials.

Show & Tell with Peter Vetter about the project on Ernst Keller “Kein Stil” and the history of the Kunstgewerbeschule Zürich. Tuesday, April 29, 2025

Ernst Keller taught the graphics class at the Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Arts and Crafts) in Zurich for 38 years between 1918 and 1956. He is mainly known for his posters and lettering. His actual achievement, i.e. the conception of one of the world's first systematic education programs for graphic design, is practically unknown. In a nine-year research project, we have tried to find and reconstruct important aspects of this achievements. The history of this project as well as some more recent findings on the history of the Kunstgewerbeschule were addressed in this presentation.

General meeting at Embru in Rüti, Thursday, 27 March 2025

Embru has written itself into Swiss design history. We met at the company's museum on the premises in Rüti and looked at what was developed and produced in-house. The focus of the exhibition is on Swiss modernism and Bauhaus. In addition to furniture from the living area, historical school furniture is also on display. After a short tour of the production plant, our general meeting took place on the premises of Embru, where the award-winning works of NDGGRANTS were present.

Show & Tell with Sébastien El Idrissi on Hans Coray, 6 February 2025 in Zurich

NDG member and product designer Sebastien El Idrissi gave us an insight into his research work on the design of the Landi Chair by Hans Coray. El Idrissi examined influences for the chair design and the prior knowledge of its designer in his master's thesis at the Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture at ETH Zurich. The work places particular emphasis on Coray's ethnographic research into agricultural tools. With the inclusion of these new findings, the work offers a more precise perspective on the design decisions behind today's design classic and also shows that design history can be rewritten and added to again and again.

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