The two presentations given on Friday were great for kicking off the program and exciting fellow classmates about our future adventures in Zurich. The two main subjects, Museum fur Gestaltung and Basel School of Design both gave great incite into what our class is going to see, learn, and experience, while the side facts of what activities there are to do in Zurich, such as museums and as well as their delicious foods, is enchanting and exciting.
Museum fur Gestaltung is a surplus of knowledge and hands on examples of the origins of graphic design, Swiss Design, and a solid foundation for design in general. One of the most fascinating facts given was the warehouse set up of different designs made by students and designers dating as far back as the beginning of the Basel School of Design. Each level displays different handmade designs, ranging from posters to pots to chairs to performing arts costumes, and below are listed facts on each object. The mention that they house the largest poster collection in Europe (and possibly in the world) is quite a thrill to any designer to witness. I hope to learn a lot about the beginnings and witness the transgressions first hand of these designers in their works collections.
I was part of the group presenting on the Basel School of Design. It's amazing to see how such a large school contributes to artists and designers and to see what kind of knowledge and classes are presented to the students studying there. Not only the knowledge presented in the classrooms, but also their humongous library that I'm sure could be compared to "graphic designer heaven". One fact that interested me was the past advanced class of graphic design that was functioning all the way from the 1960's to 1999, before being replaced by other graphic design courses. One of the contributing founders of Swiss Design, Armin Hofmann, even taught at the school for a few years. It was fascinating to read about what made Swiss Design so unique with it's simplicity, use of grids, and sans-serif font typefaces. All of these are now the basics of almost every graphic designer (as they should be).
Other than the main focus of our lecture, the information presented on the city itself was quite fascinating. Each group shared different places and events that will be going on during our stay there, such as Zurich Zoologischer Garten, Dolder Sports- where people can stay at an outdoors sports resort - Museum Bellerive (Say it with Flowers), City Tours, and the local City Treasure Hunt. It's almost overwhelming to choose what sorts of activities to do in our free time, but most of all I really want to try their different foods. The mention of the apple cake, apfelkuchlein, and Pastetli, sounds amazing to try! All in all, the first day of presentations really brought to light what kind of graphic design factors we will be witnessing and has really filled me with excitement for the adventures ahead!
