Ben Keel’s Swiss Art School Tour; Part I of IV: ZHdK
By Benjamin Keel, graphic design student at the University of Cincinnati and winner of the “24 Hours in the Life of a Swiss Cuckoo Clock” poster design contest. Part of his prize was a trip to Switzerland, to visit some of its top art + design schools. This is part one of a four part series he is writing for our blog.
Truth is, I usually hate to sleep on airplanes – but with a meeting at ZHdK scheduled just hours after landing, I had to save the Marvel movies for the ride home. After a bit snoozing, the plane landed and I met up with my dad and travel partner, Andrew. We’d flown separately, him being a professional designer in Colorado and me from Cincinnati. Instantly we were greeted with the impressively smooth tram services of Zurich, on which we made our way to the Toni Areal campus.
The recently renovated milk factory that makes up the Toni Areal campus houses ZHdK University of the Arts along with ZHAW University of Applied Sciences, with room to spare for the Museum für Gestaltung. We met with Bettina Ganz of the International Relations department, where Andrew and I toured the expansive kaskade and structured classrooms of ZHdK with wonder - or maybe that was just me. Regardless, I was very excited to explore the whole building. I was really struck with the contrast between the stark architecture of the building and the few elements that seem to bring it to life.
The true energy of the building, though, seems to come from the students. With expansive studio space filled with top of the line equipment, a library that represents most of Switzerland’s design and art knowledge, and the ability to collaborate constantly with other majors and students by virtue of proximity, it seemed like no connection was out of reach. Though they did sacrifice a bit of solitude, I was inspired by the energy and the collaborative spirit of ZHdK designers as they brainstormed and created their posters, games, drawings, and other interactive projects.
Many thanks to Bettina and the staff of the Visual Communication department for their time! I left with a bag full of awesomely designed materials that I’ll return to for inspiration, even if I can’t read German.
