The Federal Office of Culture presents this year’s Swiss Grand Award for Design to the graphic designer LORA LAMM, the photographer LUC CHESSEX and the typographers ANDRÉ GÜRTLER, CHRISTIAN MENGELT and ERICH GSCHWIND of Team’77.

With its selection, the Federal Design Commission underscores the outstanding and pioneering significance of the award winners and their life’s work, which have played a key role in fuelling cultural creativity in Switzerland: whether through the development of the legendary Haas Unica font, a seminal contribution by Team’77 to typeface design in Switzerland; Lora Lamm’s innovative revolt within Milan’s male-dominated design world of the 1950s and 1960s; or Luc Chessex’s interrogation of the power and veracity of images, together with one of the largest collections of photos from the Cuban revolution.

The award winners will be honoured on Tuesday 16 June 2015 at the Swiss Design Awards 2015 exhibition, together with the winners of the Swiss Design Awards 2015. Film and photographic portraits of the winners will be shown as part of the Swiss Design Awards 2015 exhibition from 16 to 21 June 2015 in parallel with Art Basel and Design Miami. Launched in 2007 and endowed with CHF 40,000 in each case, the Swiss Grand Award for Design highlights the work of well-known designers that exemplify the quality and relevance of Swiss design practice nationally and internationally.

Meet the awardees:

© BAK/Gina Folly, 2015

LORA LAMM, b. 1928 in Arosa
Graphic designer, Zurich

Lora Lamm studied graphic design from 1946 to 1951 under instructors including Johannes Itten, Ernst Keller and Ernst Gubler at the School of Arts and Crafts in Zurich. With her studies complete and a few initial appointments behind her, she was drawn to Milan, a city flourishing in the post-war economic boom. She started out at Studio Boggeri, where other well-regarded Swiss designers also worked, before moving to Panettone Motta Milano as a packaging designer. In 1954, on the recommendation of the Swiss graphic designer Max Huber, she switched to the advertising department of the celebrated Milanese department store La Rinascente, standing in shortly thereafter for the chief designer with responsibility for design and production of the in-house magazine Cronache. She rapidly imposed her own design visions and attracted a new female clientele to La Rinascente. With her experimental use of photography, illustration and typography – inspired partly by examples of graphic design at international department stores in New York and Tokyo – she defines the imagery of the fashion world to this day. From 1958 onwards, Lamm worked freelance for La Rinascente and the associated department store Upim. This enabled her to continue working independently for other clients such as Pirelli, Elizabeth Arden, Niggi and Latte Milano. Lamm returned to Zurich in 1963, joining the advertising agency Frank C. Thiessing as a partner shortly afterwards.

© BAK/Gina Folly, 2015

LUC CHESSEX b. 1936 in Lausanne
Photographer, Lausanne

At 25, after studying at the School of Photography in Vevey, Luc Chessex traveled to Cuba. He planned to stay for a year to support the revolution with his photographs, but stayed 14 years, building an important collection of photos on Cuban life during the time. From 1961 to 1968 he worked for the Ministry of Culture, particularly as a photographer for Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. As a highlight of his career, he served as artistic director of the magazine “Cuba internacional”. Later, as correspondent for the Cuban news agency Prensa Latina, Chessex traveled throughout the South American continent for over four years and assembled a tremendous collection of images from which he created the exhibition “When there is no more Eldorado” (1977), the first part of a trilogy also composed of a film and a book. Back in Lausanne in 1975, he worked as freelance photographer and decided to turn his camera to Switzerland. This project resulted in the exhibition and book “Swiss Life” (1987). Chessex actively worked for humanitarian causes, on theatre of wars, and on development projects for the International Committee of the Red Cross or the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. Ten years of travel in Africa, Asia, Australia, Latin America and the US lead to the monumental “Around the World” exhibition and book (1999). From 1981 to 1989 Chessex taught in various photography schools. He began a thorough investigation of multiculturalism in the Lausanne area that resulted in the exhibition and book “Of all the colours” (2012).

© BAK/Gina Folly, 2015

TEAM’77

André Gürtler and Christian Mengelt founded the Letterform Research & Design Team in 1974 and Team’77, Letterform Research & Design together with Erich Gschwind in 1977, as an independent partnership for typeface design projects. Team’77 has produced the following printing fonts with and on behalf of the following companies: Cyrillic Gothic (1974) and Alpin Gothic (1974) for Compugraphic Corporation (USA); Media (1976) and Signa (1978) for Bobst Graphic (Lausanne) and Autologic (USA); and Avant Garde Gothic, Oblique (1977) for ITC, International Typeface Corporation (USA). In 1980, Team’77 developed the legendary Haas Unica font for the Haas Type Foundry in Münchenstein.

ANDRÉ GÜRTLER, b. 1936 in Basel
Typographer, type designer and lecturer, Therwil

After training as a compositor, André Gürtler studied typographic design at the Basel School of Design under Emil Ruder. Thereafter he worked at various locations, including the Monotype Corporation in Salfords, England and Atelier Adrian Frutiger in Paris. From 1965 to 2000 he taught type design at the Basel School of Design. He has been a guest lecturer at various design schools and universities in Europe, the US and Mexico. He is the author of numerous publications in various specialist journals and has been a member of editorial staff at the journal Typografische Monatsblätter.

CHRISTIAN MENGELT, b. 1938 in St. Gallen
Graphic designer, type designer and lecturer, Blauen

Christian Mengelt studied as a sign painter and then as a graphic designer at the Basel School of Design under Armin Hofmann. After setting up his own studio in Basel he embarked on collaborations with various design and advertising agencies, including GGK (Basel) and Mendel & Oberer in Munich. From 1972 to 2001 he taught type design at the Basel School of Design. He has been a guest lecturer at various design schools and universities in Europe, the US and Mexico, and is the author of numerous publications in specialist journals.

ERICH GSCHWIND, b. 1947 in Hofstetten
Typographer and type designer, Metzerlen

Erich Gschwind trained as a compositor and then as a typographic designer in the specialist book printing and typography courses at the Basel School of Design, also under Emil Ruder. Thereafter, he worked as a typographic designer in various printing houses and was responsible for corporate design at the medical science publisher S. Karger AG in Basel, for which he designed numerous scientific publications.

CONGRATULATIONS !!!