Tending to final details before heading off on a ThinkSwiss study tour on Design & Innovation, a week of design immersion hosted by the Swiss government and its U.S. envoys, including my friends at SwissNex Boston. Very much looking forward to meeting the other members of the U.S. group which includes folks from the Cooper-Hewitt, Corcoran Gallery, dwell, ID Magazine, Art Center College, IDEO, Art Center College, Univ. of Maryland, SF Academy of Art and the NY design collective studio.
Our homework was to provide three spontaneous ideas that come to mind when thinking of Switzerland (landscape, chocolate and fresh) and three works that I associate with Swiss design & innovation (clean, technical and quality.) A scan of Swiss items in my household confirms: Heidi, calendar featuring Swiss Alpine horns, Swiss Army Knife, (couldn’t find my Swatch or any chocolate) but also a favorite pair of shoes (Stefi Talman) and a slew of Swiss design publications from SwissNex. I suspect that my post-trip collection will look quite different after visiting companies like Freitag, Nose, Ruckstuhl, Creation Bauman, Vitra and other design museums and schools in Zurich, Langenthal and Lausanne.
I’m curious about how my mental picture of Swiss design will shift in the course of the week. And along with chocolate, I plan on bringing home some Swiss-inspired ideas about how MA can better promote our own designers.
April 27, 2009 at 4:16 am |
Bring me back some chocolate. On second thought, don’t…unless the Swiss have designed a bathing suit that is truly inspired.