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You’ll by now have noticed the eye catching and provocative red graphic design concept for the 2018 Swiss Design Award, and if you haven’t, your eyes must’ve been closed! The striking colour scheme design is thanks to the talented work of ECAL graduate and teacher, Emmanuel Crivelli, who is already credited with the award for The Most Beautiful Books 2016, and The Swiss Federal Design Award 2012. Crivelli founded Dual Room, a graphic design studio based in Biel in 2010 and we caught up with him to talk about this year’s design.

SDA –  Could you guide us through your thinking for this year’s concept?

EC – The concept I proposed for the 2018 identity of the SDAs is based on four observations I made.

Firstly, the Swiss Design Awards are in their 101st year.

Secondly, today artistic creation has become so prolific that the way of consuming it has changed and, to easily access all this material, it has become necessary to archive it. Even in fashion, some big brands show their clothes online through filter systems (material, colour, style, …) because of the sheer number of products they have on offer. A smart example is the MET Museum in New York which shows its collection on the internet through vignettes of details of pictures and key words that enables the organisation of the artwork, but also to discover the works in a playful and interactive way. Also, on Instagram, Pinterest, etc. we can archive images in folders.

Thirdly, the internet has completely transformed space, making it possible to be here, there and everywhere, giving the chance to spread information to a greater number of visitors. In the case of the Swiss Design Awards and its promotion, I find it essential to confront the nominees and winners with the rest of the design production in Europe and the world. The swissdesignawardsblog.ch is therefore, for me, a platform that must continue to allow designers to express their thoughts. The users would like to know more about the creative origins of designers and the projects they present; therefore, in 100 years, this material will be a document with real historical, storytelling power.

Last but not least, more and more websites are being given more value than printed matter. In the Swiss Design Award 2017 the laureates in the category graphic / web was more present.

For these reasons, I propose a visual identity which will mark the entry into this new era of the 101st year and our contemporary way of consuming information, which will be focused entirely around the new blog (it will be revealed in April 2018) and its new and more detailed editorial content. It will also have a distinct digital feel.

SDA – How do you describe your approach to (graphic) design and your creative process in general?

EC – I founded my graphic design studio Dual Room (dualroom.ch) on the slogan “attractive presages, structured visions and radical phantasms”. Those are the three criteria on which I based my working methodology: to create an image or a visual-concept that teases your eyes or that pushes you to question things, through a structured design using radical hierarchizing of the information. Also, what they taught me was “master the rules to break the rules”. So, I’m still trying to break the few rules I know and to master many others.

SDA – What are you currently inspired by and how is it feeding into your work?

EC – Since I saw John Baldisseri’s exhibition at Sprüth Magers, I’m fascinated by his work, visually and conceptually, the way in which images and texts are associated interrogates the visitor. For example, if I design a poster, I want it to not only give information about the event but I also want it to have its own message, to encourage the audience to be critical, to foster curiosity.

I also love magazines, one I’m really into is Zeit Magazine International. The editorial work made on the content is pure genius. What feeds me is how the interviews and the photo-shoots tell stories in so many different ways.

And for sure I’m very inspired by the people I work with and this is what makes collaborations so exciting. For example, Erwan Frotin, with whom I made the posters for the Opera in Lausanne, or Philippe Jarrigeon and Tristan Bagot on this project for the Swiss Design Awards. The collaboration pushes the final result beyond the imagined goal.

You can see more of Crivelli’s work, and the flagship designs at this year’s awards event in June, and, before that, on social media @dualroom #EmmanuelCrivelli @swissdesignawards, #swissdesignawards FB Link

Concept and design: Emmanuel Crivelli @dualroom