Some of you will remember Tobias Gutmann’s FACE-O-MAT from last year’s SWISS DESIGN AWARDS. The Zurich-based grapich designer is back for the 2015 edition of the awards that opens on 15 June. In this blog, he presents his project “Let’s Make Language” and calls for exploration.

Which priorities and / or concerns do you currently face in your practice and how do you face them?  In other words – which critical questions keep bouncing back within your work / projects?

Language defines how we think and act in the world we live in. Is it possible to unlearn and escape conventional language patterns? Would I be able to understand the world in a different way, if I would create my own personal language? Within the project „Let’s Make Language“, I search for meaning in abstract shapes and experiment with unusual writing instruments. I play like a child, trying to forget what I know and explore without preconceptions.

“Doubt, Delight and Change!” – was a claim by Cedric Price (an unconventional and visionary architect best-known for buildings which never saw the light of day – but who was one of the most influential and visionary architects of the late-twentieth century). What is your claim and why?

Let’s make language! Let’s rethink how we think. Let’s be kids. Let’s explore the world.

And what we really want to know from you is: What is your most treasured possession?

I am possessed by the invisible, the unknown.

Photo: Joël Tettamani

More on Tobias here: www.tobiasgutmann.ch