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 will discuss what has moved us in terms of design history over the past year. We look forward to seeing you there!
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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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