Why did you decide to do a master’s in Cultural Publishing?
When I started my master’s, I wanted to focus on writing and to explore this craft far away from graphic design. But the programme also explores formats that are familiar to me, such as books, magazines or websites — simply from the other end of the spectrum. Working at the intersection of journalism, transfer and culture attracted me.
What are you currently working on?
While exploring texts and their framework conditions, I began looking for publishing formats that would offer me creative freedom. My master’s thesis brought me back to graphic design, albeit from a new perspective. Since 1943, the “Most Beautiful Swiss Books” have been honoured every year — since 1999 by the Federal Office of Culture (BAK) — and presented as a publication and as a traveling exhibition. “Beauty” is often central to these formats. Together with Laura Breitschmid, a curator and fellow student, I considered how to make the contents and contexts of these acclaimed books accessible to a wider audience. The result is “Not Just Beautiful”: a book podcast that starts with the content and ends with the design.
Do you need art?
We need art as a mirror and as friction between our daily reality and a possible reality that might not yet exist or only potentially. This is where I see the role of art: to create scenarios, whether large or small, to facilitate and to open our eyes.
What transition or change in life has shaped you most?
My stays abroad as a student were definitely my most formative experiences. At high school, I spent a year in California. I studied visual design, first at ZHdK and later at Amsterdam’s Gerrit Rietveld Academie, before heading to London to do an internship. Moving back and forth — leaving and returning with fresh eyes — enables a new perspective on the familiar, and creates friction with the present. My master’s degree has also involved such a journey — even if didn’t require leaving Zurich.