Some guessed it right, when I asked what city I went to for my interview. It´s a city where most words end with -erl instead of -li and where you hear "Grüß Gott" instead of "Grüezi" and "Vielen Dank, auf Wiederschauen" instead of "Merci vilmol, uf Wiederluege". It´s a place famous for beer and sausages not of cheese and chocolate and shop signs are in blackletter instead of Helvetica. It´s Munich, the bavarian capital, famous for lederhosen and pretzels and whatnot.Here I found a lovely flat just by the English Garden, where I'm still unpacking my four bags with probably around 100kg of stuff. I have updated my contact details, so if you want to come and visit or send me a postcard, feel free; the address is here.
Another stage of my life draws to a close. Not only have I finished the 2nd year at university, I also experienced yet another culture, language and lifestyle. It was often difficult to explain why a German who studies in England does an exchange semester in Switzerland and it brought many interestingly entangled cultural experiences. It wasn't always easy and it certainly wasn't cheap but it was definitely worthwile. Time to look at some statistics (you know I love it) ...The last 168 days cost me approximately 7300 Swiss Francs (£ 4150) altogether. More than expected. I spent alone £2360 for accommodation, and another £865 for travel costs. The tickets are nice pieces of design though; they feature an image of the Swiss mountains on the front. When I arrange my collected tickets in line, I can create a panoramic image of the alps in the scale of approx. 1:245000. The remaining £930 for living costs are actually quite reasonable, seeing that the living costs are higher and the cheese is seductive — which is why I invested 150 CHF in cheese and ate approx. 7.5 kilograms of it. Almost as much as I ate chocolate, probably between 5 and 7 kilograms in 24 weeks. With about £35 per week, I had a very good life in Europes most expensive city (but also the one with the highest quality of life). I'll miss the cheese and chocolate but also the Rösti, Chäschüechli, Rüblitorte, Fasnachtschüechli, Schümli, Gipfeli, Guetsli, Butterzopf, Bürli, Husbrot, Ruchbrot, Kneippbrot, Nussbrot, Kartoffelbrot, St. Gallerbrot, Silserbrot, Krustenkranz, Pulet, Trutenfleisch, Landjäger, Mini-Pics, Älplerwurst, Cervelas, the various cheeses and of course fondue. Most of these things are available in a similar form in other countries, but they don't sound so cute and I don't think they'd taste as good.One thing that was cheap however, was extracurricular education. I spent altogether under £30 and saw about 25 exhibitions, shows and talks. At the Design Museum in Zurich I went to see the exhibitions "Good Design, Good Business - Swiss Graphic Design & Advertising by Geigy", "Irma Boom - Book Design", "EveryThing Design" and "Robots - From Motion to Emotion" as well as the premiere of Objectified and talks with Swiss as well as internationally renowned designers, artists and critics such as Gary Hustwit, Paola Antonelli, Peter Noever, Ruedi Baur, Jean Etienne Aebi, Richard Hollis, Lars Müller, Megi Zumstein, Irma Boom and Manuel Krebs discussing "Swiss Style Forever", "Authorship", "Good Design = Good Business?", "Materialize it" and "What Will We Collect Tomorrow?". Other exhibitions I saw include "Hot Spots" at the Kunsthaus Zurich, "Witzerland" at the National Museum, the Centre Dürrenmatt in Neuchatel, "Bilderrätsel" at the ETH and "Conceptual Games" at the Kunsthaus Aarau.And because that still wasn't enough, I went to conferences like "Tag der Schrift" (typography day) with Matthias Noordzij and Gerard Unger, "Design Follows" with Tossa and Jörg Boner, "Illustrators Lunch" with Martin Hoppe from Bitrats, industry talks about proofing and rapid 3D prototyping and most notably to Tweakfest, the digital lifestyle conference.This way I could make the most of the excellent education I got at the Zurich University of the Arts where my curriculum was filled with modules about Digital Media, Scientific Visualisation and Information Design. I attended lectures about User Experience Design, Convergence Design, the Digital and the Analogue, Iconicity, Isotype, Technical Illustrations, Mapping and Orientation and special events such as the Design Symposium with several presentations from alumni, who talked about their experiences in the industry.To round it off I went to both a cheese and a chocolate factory and local events like the nightly carnival in Basle and Sächsilüüte, the anual Snowman burning in Zurich. Speaking of travelling, I certainly did enough of that. I've seen the North with lake constance and the rhine falls. I've seen the south an a panoramic train ride through Ticino to Milan. I've seen the North West, Lucerne, Engelberg and the Fürenalp. I went on the train along the entire North side of the alps up to Montreux and Lausanne, then the same with the South side from Chur to Fiesch, the Eggishorn, Aletsch glacier and back via Berne. I've been to the East, in Appenzell, on top of the Säntis mountain, later to Sargans and across the border to Liechtenstein. I went to Geneva in the West and finally crossed the largest rope bridge in Europe after a vertiginous mountain hike. I've been to every one of the four language regions, visited 24 of the 26 cantons and all the main cities. I haven't even travelled my home country that extensively. I travelled by train, trolley bus, post bus, car, boat, cable car, tram, gondola, cog wheel train ... probably the only thing I didn't do was riding a cow.It all sounds a lot and yes, it was a lot. I'm surprised how much I managed to do in these 6 months. Maybe I'll make a little book out of it. But now, sadly, it´s time to say goodbye — or as the Swiss say: Uf Wiederluege — and give back my lovely violet residence permit. It was nice and I'll surely come back.
But that´s not actually true. Inbetween lie-ins and walks around the lake, I'm enjoying my last days in Switzerland with trips around the country. There are still a few places that I haven't seen, so I need to check them out before I leave. A few places I visited recently are the mini-state Liechtenstein and its capital Vaduz, the second largest city of Switzerland Geneva and one of the smallest capitals in Europe Bern. Below you can click on the photos to take you to the album with impressions of these three lovely holiday locations.
I am currently on holiday, which means I'm doing exactly nothing. Not even writing about doing nothing as you might have noticed. I'm enjoying the sun with temperatures >30°C, crystal clear water and swimming with the swans or the rainy days by sitting at home, drinking Rivella and watching the lightning outside. It´s the perfect way to round out my Switzerland experience.The exchange semester has taught me many things. Not only practical skills like Flash prototyping or pronouncing Chäschüechli but also things to do with my role and identity as a designer and as a design student. I visited both degree shows in Zurich and in Bristol and I can say that there are some fundamental differences between the two schools.The Zurich University of the Arts appears to be a very traditional yet up-to-date art school. Their approach seems generally very strict and business-like. Every student starts with the same conditions. Through entrance exams the school makes sure that they get the people that are right for this kind of education. The 20 chosen students per year are talented, intelligent, creative and most of all committed. It is a requirement to bring your own computer to have access to study and many students will buy one from the in-house Apple store. An allround industry standard software package for about £30 (that´s the Adobe Creative Suite, iLife, Apple Final Cut Pro and a few extra programmes for font management etc. plus about 2000 professional fonts) allows all students to have the necessary software on their own machines and learn it not only in formal workshops but also through working with it all the time. In the first three semesters the students learn the basics of graphic design in theory and practice not through projects but through targetted lectures with exercises and workshops. After this, every student is at exactly the same level in terms of skills, knowledge and even hard- and software. The rest of the course is filled with exciting projects, always up-to-date and individually tailored to this particular year group. Throughout the course, the students attend usually every day regardless if there are lectures or not. They come to school in the morning and work around their own personal desk space, just like a real job. Work is discussed in presentations, usually weekly. These presentations are taken very seriously, they're well prepared and reminded me of professional pitches. In personal tutorials there are always at least two tutors with every group of two to four students. Sometimes there were four tutors working with a group of four students. These tutorials usually took 45 minutes. The lecturers/tutors all seem to come from an industry background. They either have their own design studio, work for well-known companies or are practicing researchers. Final presentations were hardly any different to the weekly interim presentations, except that at the end of a project there was always some kind of official celebration with free beer for instance or going out for a meal with the whole class and all lecturers/tutors. This created a really good atmosphere among the class and gave them a sense of achievement. The work is generally very much type and print based with a strong bias towards posters and corporate identity. Though the course has an interdisciplinary element in every semester i.e. there is the possibility to choose two modules from a different course every year. I have to say that the work produced looks very 'typically swiss' and professional from a very early stage of the course (i.e. first-years produce work at second or third-years standard). The different year groups mix rather well too. This is probably due to the small numbers and some collaborative projects. All in all is Zurich a no-nonsense art school. If you work hard, you'll fit in. If you let things slide, expect a bollocking.UWE on the other hand is rather laid back. If you let things slide, either you get away with it without anybody noticing or you get reasonably good marks anyway as long as you make it look like you made an effort. The expectations are not high. The approach seems to be rather experimental, things are made up along the way. The numbers are four times as high and the entrance requirements are different. I think UWE produces a different breed of designers. Traditional skills are being talked about but not exactly taught. There is no common ground to start from. Every student is an individual and leaves as an individual. Some are very skilled and professional, and some keep producing 'amateurish' work throughout the course. Some don't even own a computer and hold a somewhat outlandish view that graphic design doesn't need to have anything to do with digital. Tutors are on the same level as students, they're not better nor more qualified. Some don't even hold a design related degree. Briefs are deliberately left open for interpretation. Students are prepared for the industry insofar that it is assumed that they will work in all sorts of jobs vaguely related to anything creative. The more 'arty' your work is and the more individual, the better your grades. Most of the work is either motion graphics or type and print based with, ironically, a funny elitist stance towards typography, which means that there is a smattering of traditional typographic terms but no solid knowledge that actually helps anyone. A lot of this work tends to copy the Swiss style of the 50s. Generally I think Graphic Design at UWE is for artist designers or designer artists. Not the good old Bauhaus concept "form follows function" seems important but other values such as individuality, personality or even quirkyness.So last month I went to see the degree shows at UWE and in Zurich. In Zurich, I wasn't too impressed by the work of the Visual Communication (ie. Graphic Design) course, which I blame on the change from Diplomas to Bachelor degrees (don't get me started). In Bristol I had a very strange deja vu when I stepped into the exhibition. It was basically exactly the same as last year, only with a different font. What´s special about UWE´s degree show is that for them a ´show' is different from an 'exhibition'. That means that the work is put into categories (posters, books, film, etc.) and the work of every student is displayed all over the place. If you want so see the work of a particular student, you'll have to walk around and do some sort of easter egg hunt. It shows the philosophy behind the course. It´s the UWE artist collective. Even though each student works independently (and at home), they get displayed as one. This way of presenting the work doesn't take into consideration that potential employers might visit the show to look for new talent. It shows that the course is not so much aimed at preparing students for the industry but rather to let them play around creatively for 3 years and see where it takes them. Not necessarily a bad thing, but different from the traditional way.I'm a very pragmatically thinking person. Although my work has a lot of personality and even seems very arty, I've always (perhaps unsuccessfully) looking for purposeful design. I expect a course to teach me essential skills. I want my lecturers to be knowledgeable experts that I can ask questions when I'm stuck. I want definitive answers, not some esoteric 'maybe you could try to draw with your left hand' sort of advise. The aimlessness, lack of discipline and purpose as well as the somewhat contradictory nature of the course made me grow increasingly uncomfortable with UWE before I went to Zurich. Don't get me wrong, I love UWE as a university, I love the campus and I enjoyed the two and a half years I spent there very much. I just missed the ´serious' academic part that a university is supposed to offer. But through experiencing the exact opposite in Zurich, I found out that I need more than just discipline, purpose and definitive answers. I guess I have to find a middle way. Creative freedom, a pinch of crazyness and yet a high level of usability and awesome visual design is what I'm aiming for. I guess I can't rely on a course to give me exactly what I need, even when I'm paying a lot of money for it. It´s not something you could buy, it´s something you create yourself. There´s only one more question: What do I need a design school for anyway?Or maybe I'm just fed up with everything and need a break. Anyhow, I decided to give myself some time to think about that before I'm heading into my third year. I'll take a year out and treat myself to some work experience in various fields of graphic design that interest me. I'm not sure what I'm going to learn exactly but I hope to become clearer about what kind of designer I want to be and how I can build a career that makes me happy and satisfied ... and have some fun along the way.
