Essay
Failure Is Not an Option? - © Swiss Design Awards Blog
Failure Is Not an Option? - © Swiss Design Awards Blog
Failure Is Not an Option? - © Swiss Design Awards Blog
Failure Is Not an Option? - © Swiss Design Awards Blog
Failure Is Not an Option? - © Swiss Design Awards Blog
Failure Is Not an Option? - © Swiss Design Awards Blog

Failure Is Not an Option?
Swiss Design Awards Online

By Yves Mettler, introduction by Anna Niederhäuser & Lucas Uhlmann

Owing to the cancellation of the exhibition and competition in Basel this year as a result of the pandemic situation, the Swiss Design Awards are staging an alternative programme entitled “Failure is not an Option?“. During the week of 14–18 September 2020 the Swiss Design Awards will broadcast conversations and live chat rooms that will be available to read, watch and comment on the blog.
Outstanding designers honored
Swiss Grand Award for Design 2020 - © Swiss Design Awards Blog
Swiss Grand Award for Design 2020 - © Swiss Design Awards Blog
Swiss Grand Award for Design 2020 - © Swiss Design Awards Blog
Swiss Grand Award for Design 2020 - © Swiss Design Awards Blog
Swiss Grand Award for Design 2020 - © Swiss Design Awards Blog
Swiss Grand Award for Design 2020 - © Swiss Design Awards Blog
Swiss Grand Award for Design 2020 - © Swiss Design Awards Blog
Swiss Grand Award for Design 2020 - © Swiss Design Awards Blog
Swiss Grand Award for Design 2020 - © Swiss Design Awards Blog

Swiss Grand Award for Design 2020

By Mirjam Fischer, Nathalie Herschdorfer and Corinne Gisel

The Federal Office of Culture has chosen the fashion designer Ida Gut, photographer Monique Jacot, and product designers Sarah Kueng and Lovis Caputo as the winners of this year’s Swiss Grand Award for Design.
Essay
The Anthropology of Design - © Photo: © Philippe Jarrigeon, Swiss Design Awards Blog
The Anthropology of Design - © Swiss Design Awards Blog
The Anthropology of Design - © Swiss Design Awards Blog

The Anthropology of Design

By Susanna Koeberle

Design is a kind of interface passing through our lived experience and everyday practices. Viewed in that light, design can very much be described as an anthropological discipline.
Essay
Rafael Kouto, *Wishing This World Will Last Forever* - © photo © Jean-Vincent Simonet, Swiss Design Awards Blog
Time and the Essence - © Swiss Design Awards Blog
Time and the Essence - © Swiss Design Awards Blog

Time and the Essence

By Jonas Berthod

There are projects which only get better with time. Through serial commissions or extensive research, they develop into layered outcomes that are fascinating to follow. In this essay, I examine selected projects in which time played a particular role.
Essay
Ursula Vogel, *goodlifeceramics* - © photo © Paola Caputo, Swiss Design Awards Blog
Ursula Vogel, *goodlifeceramics* - © photo © Paola Caputo, Swiss Design Awards Blog
Ursula Vogel, *goodlifeceramics* - © photo © Paola Caputo, Swiss Design Awards Blog

Designing Togetherness

By Yves Mettler

Implicated as it is in everyday life, design inevitably has to deal with day-to-day episodes like eating. Let’s trace this thread through the creations of some of the Swiss Design Award nominees and see how designers intervene in these often deeply rooted rituals, and adress global issues.
Essay
*Doomed Paradise* - © © Tomas Wüthrich, Swiss Design Awards Blog
*Doomed Paradise* - © © Tomas Wüthrich, Swiss Design Awards Blog
Here and There We Are - © Swiss Design Awards Blog

Here and There We Are

By Mathieu Musy

Documentary photography may depict a distant elsewhere; but it always represents our own gaze on it. Pictures of exotic worlds tell our story and reveal the nature of our relationship to others.
Essay
Careers and the Cultural Field - © Swiss Design Awards Blog
Careers and the Cultural Field - © Swiss Design Awards Blog
Careers and the Cultural Field - © Swiss Design Awards Blog

Careers and the Cultural Field

By Jonas Berthod

Designers are at different stages of their careers when they enter the Swiss Design Awards. While I had assumed the reasons for applying varied, it turns out they remain broadly the same at each career stage. What does this tell us about designers’ needs?
Essay
Made in School or School Made? - © Swiss Design Awards Blog
Made in School or School Made? - © Swiss Design Awards Blog
Made in School or School Made? - © Swiss Design Awards Blog
Made in School or School Made? - © Swiss Design Awards Blog
Made in School or School Made? - © Swiss Design Awards Blog
Made in School or School Made? - © Swiss Design Awards Blog

Made in School or
School Made?

By common-interest (Nina Paim and Corin Gisel)

Diploma projects represented 20% of all entries to this year’s Swiss Design Award, and 16% of all nominations. Following the work of nominees Clio Hadjigeorgiou, Lora Sonney, and Martina Huynh, it becomes clear that the diploma project can be of pivotal importance in someone’s trajectory, but also that neither design nor education ever happens in a vacuum.
Introduction
"Here, There & Everywhere" Swiss Design Awards 2020 - © Swiss Design Awards Blog
"Here, There & Everywhere" Swiss Design Awards 2020 - © Swiss Design Awards Blog
"Here, There & Everywhere" Swiss Design Awards 2020 - © Swiss Design Awards Blog
"Here, There & Everywhere" Swiss Design Awards 2020 - © Swiss Design Awards Blog
"Here, There & Everywhere" Swiss Design Awards 2020 - © Swiss Design Awards Blog
"Here, There & Everywhere" Swiss Design Awards 2020 - © Swiss Design Awards Blog

“Here, There & Everywhere”
Swiss Design Awards 2020

By Anna Niederhäuser, photography by Philippe Jarrigeon and art direction by Dual Room

In future, there will be always a time before and after Covid-19. The big question that design asks is unchanged and yet is suddenly far more topical, namely: what role does design play in our society?
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