Bachelor
Graphic Design

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Editorial Design – BA2 S1 2025

with Diego Bontognali

As part of this editorial design course, students developed a research-based project focused on the selection and design of texts around a shared theme. Based on a curated set of sources, each project presents two editions with identical content, produced in both a large and a small format.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Contextual Design – BA2 S1 2025

with Nicole Udry

Genius Loci, or the spirit of the place, refers to the unique identity or essence of a location. In architecture, this principle suggests that the specific characteristics of a place should be reflected and extended in a design. In the case of the second-year graphic design students, they have applied this principle to communication projects focused on promoting or extending the identity of a particular place through design. Their work likely explores how to visually capture and communicate the essence of a space, using graphic design elements that resonate with the architectural features or history of the place.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Type Design BA2 – S1 2025

with Aurèle Sack

Second-year students were required to manually develop the lowercase letters of two typefaces.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Type Design - BA1 S1 2025-2026

with Robert Huber

First-year students were invited to manually sketch the typographic skeleton of lowercase alphabet letters. The objective was to maintain the proportions, curves, and characteristic axes of each letter while paying close attention to visual coherence and consistency in the drawing.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Editorial Design - Great Expectations - BA1 S1 2025-2026

with Harry Bloch

During the editorial design course with Harry Bloch, the first-year students each laid out a chapter of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations. A final edition compiling all the chapters was produced for the occasion.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Visual Identity - Cut & Paste - BA1 S1 2025-2026)

with Adeline Mollard

During the visual identity course, the 1st year of the Graphic Design bachelor had to carry out a poster project from a random event. They had to define their own visual system and explored a search for hand-made typographic posters. The visual identity of the event was developed through a poster and a flyer, accompanied by a research notebook grouping their entire creative process.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Création d'image - Double Reading - BA1 2025-2026

with Guy Meldem

First-year students were invited to design a 16-page publication. By experimenting with duotone through various printing techniques, they structured a dual reading experience dependent on the printed colors.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN

PHOTOGRAPHY

ECAL Light House

with Jean-Vincent Simonet, Léonard Guyot, Florian Pittet (Sigmasix), Vincent Jacquier, Julien Gurtner

During a week of collaborative work, first-year students in the Visual Communication department at ECAL were given the ambitious task of creating a complete audiovisual experience, designing a light and sound architecture based solely on five original musical compositions. Using a central totem-like screen installation and projections on the surrounding walls, enhanced with lasers, they created a visual environment, broadcast in real time, which was presented as a performance to the public at the end of the week. The aim was to construct a universe capable of fully utilizing the space and the various stage elements, inviting the audience to move around and experience the live performance in its entirety. Five cross-functional creative groups, each with a different sound base, were supervised by Jean-Vincent Simonet and Léonard Guyot to produce images and test them throughout the week on the device, which was developed, set up and operated by a sixth group under the supervision of Florian Pittet, Matthieu Minguet and Achille Masson.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

GEOFF HAN – WORK AND TURN

by Leandra Adler, Cansu Celen, Layana Comte, Anaïs Dermont, Camille Genoud, Eve Gremaud, Eloïse Guillod, Mathis Harmant, Marie Hintzy, Matteo Lucca, Maxime Manera, Gaëtan Mauclair, Mathys Mauron, Emma Morisseau, Sara Pedersoli, Lucie Pittet, Hélène Prongué, Leonardo Mariucci, Alice Refachinho, Justine Renevey, Gaspard Schlatter, Laura Simons, Vu Toni Thien Duc, Maïa Yassin, Jonas Zesiger

In November 2025, 27 ECAL students took part in Work and Turn, a workshop led by Geoff Han exploring the theme of labor and the often overlooked work that sustains the school. Located in a former IRIL knitwear factory in the industrial area of Renens, ECAL occupies a vast building whose daily functioning depends on many visible and invisible forms of labor. Over five days, students worked in small teams to produce a collective 96-page pocket-sized publication. Each pair created an 8-page photographic visual essay focusing on a specific aspect of labor at ECAL. Rather than relying on traditional portraits, the projects explored more poetic and indirect ways of documenting traces of work through spaces, gestures, materials, and infrastructures. The entire publication was manually printed on an offset press by the students themselves, in either black or red and black. The printing process was a central part of the workshop: participants prepared the plates, set up the press, and ran the prints. This hands-on production process echoed the theme of labor explored throughout the publication.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

ALICE FRANCHETTI WORKSHOP – RICHARD NEUTRA

with Alice Franchetti

During this workshop, each student was tasked with designing a poster inspired by the architectural legacy of Richard Neutra. Drawing from his modernist philosophy and formal principles — clean lines, transparency, strict geometry, and integration with the landscape — each student visually reinterpreted Neutra’s ideas within a 2D graphic format.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN

PHOTOGRAPHY

ECAL Night Live

with Vincent Veillon, Paul Walther, Florian Pittet (Sigmasix), Vincent Jacquier, Julien Gurtner

During an intensive week, first-year students from the Visual Communication department at ECAL had the opportunity to create and produce the first edition of ECAL Night Live. The goal was to design a show inspired by satirical television formats. Divided into multidisciplinary teams—including students from the Bachelor programs in Graphic Design, Media & Interaction Design, and Photography—they collaborated to create all the content, set design, and visual identity of the show, delivering a fully homemade project in record time. The main theme revolved around self-mockery, targeting the visual communication professions, students, and the institution itself, with a subtle touch of current events. This project was supervised by Vincent Veillon and Paul Walther, directors of the RTS show 52 Minutes, as well as Florian Pittet, a digital scenography expert who guided the creation of the show's set design.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Workshop Jiri Oplatek

by Candice Aepli, Amélie Bertholet, Coraline Beyeler, Delphine Brantschen, Léa Corin, Matteo Cortesi, Mathilde Driebold, Eliot Dubi, Marc Facchinetti, Emilie Müller, Dorian Pangallo, Paul Paturel, Hugo Scholl, Diego Steiner, Cyprien Valenza, Alfredo Venti, Arnaud Wenger, Constance Mauler, Flora Hayoz, Lidia Molina González

An Ode to the Poster 80 Attributes 80 Fonts 80 Posters During this week, the second year students had to create 80 posters, i.e. 4 posters per person. Based on a list of defined attributes, they had to create typography and concepts around them.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Workshop Hélas Studio – 2024

with Eilean Friis-Lund, Alice Vodoz

Mise en scène An exercise centered around the poster format with a typographic approach. The goal is to convey the atmosphere of a film through lettering by graphically staging the text.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Léa Corin – Neither Fully Free, Nor Fully Captive

by Léa Corin

Neither Fully Free, Nor Fully Captive explores the theme of day parole. Through a video installation and a book, this project archives and documents the activities of an association dedicated to reintegration. The projection, conceived as an emotional archive, combines experimental videos with sound testimonies from individuals on day parole supported by the association, revealing the complexity of this transition. The book, as a complement, adopts a documentary and sensitive approach, blending stories and visual creations. This project transcends graphic form to foster social dialogue and shed light on an essential yet often overlooked issue.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Diego Steiner – Hybrid Modules

by Diego Steiner

Hybrid Modules explores the link between traditional craftsmanship and contemporary technologies through the creation of a 3D-printed modular typographic tool for use with a manual letterpress. Designed on a grid, the modular alphabet becomes a set of physical dies, which can be inserted by hand into the press. The slow, repetitive process becomes an integral part of the visual language, making visible the time and care of the gesture. A series of A2 posters promotes a series of fictitious conferences entitled “ART, CRAFT & TECHNOLOGY - Guests in Switzerland”.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Flora Hayoz – FACE À FACE

by Flora Hayoz

FACE À FACE is an exploration of loneliness through two mediums: dance and graphic design. This project brings together two practices to give shape to a hybrid creation. On one hand, a choreographic piece co-choreographed with Gaia Menchini, centred on states of loneliness and then captured on video. The second medium is a publication that extends the piece. By questioning the book as an object, it is designed to be read by two people and becomes a tool for dialogue and listening. The publication thus diverts from its usual uses, creating a sensory experience. The two media interact with each other, inviting us to experience solitude both in movement and in the sharing of reading. Thus, FACE À FACE offers an experience where solitude becomes the starting point for an encounter.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Constance Mauler – Club Kid

by Constance Mauler

My project explores the Club Kid scene. Born in the 1980s in New York, this movement emerged as a radical response to artistic and social elitism. Led by queer and marginalized individuals, it transformed nightlife into a space of freedom, resistance, and self-invention. This publication aim to create a dialogue between the original generation of Club Kids and the contemporary scene, to show how this movement continues to challenge norms, invent new codes, and assert liberated identities. An immersion into a flamboyant and deeply political subculture.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Coraline Beyeler – 5R

by Coraline Beyeler

5R is a documentary book explores the contrast between urban and rural agriculture, focusing on developments driven by new generations. It addresses issues related to pollution as well as social, health, and economic challenges.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Marc Facchinetti – The Swiss Climate Report

by Marc Facchinetti

The Swiss Climate Report is an editorial design project that explores climate change through data. Based on recent meteorological records, put into perspective with historical averages sometimes dating back more than 150 years, the book is supported by plugins custom-developed for InDesign. These tools translate scientific data such as temperatures, UV radiation and Dobson units into typographic variations and ASCII forms. This experimental approach offers an alternative reading of climate information. The project offers a raw and precise computer graphics perspective.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Lidia Molina González – Toilet Break Magazine

by Lidia Molina González

It all started with taking a break. A pause. A moment alone in a shared space: quiet, ordinary, a little strange. Toilets might not be the first place you’d look for big ideas, but that’s why we chose them. Toilet Break uses this overlooked space to explore how we live together, take space, and connect. This first issue is about in-betweens: between public and private, inside and outside. It gathers voices from Switzerland, Belgium, Japan, across generations and practices. A place where ideas circulate freely, where serious things can be said with a wink. A collective and personal space to test new editorial forms, listen more carefully, and believe in detours as a way forward. To take, quite literally, a moment to reflect and sit with things.