swissmiss on Aeschbacher

Here’s some exciting news that most probably only my Swiss readers will get: I am going to be on Kurt Aeschbacher’s TV show, which is airing tomorrow, thursday march 31st at 10.20pm.

Here’s some info (in German) about all 4 guests on the show, including myself. (For those of you not familiar with Swiss TV, Kurt Aeschbacher is the Larry King of Switzerland.)

Exciting? Very!

Kuoni The Detourist



Swiss Travel Agency Kuoni released its 2010 Annual Report, appearing this time in the form of a daily newspaper. The Brand Report took on the function of a feuilleton, as an independent features section within the publication. It stems from the third Kuoni Getaway Council in Venice and offers a captivating compilation of texts on tourism. Renowned authors, essayists and scholars such as Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Orhan Pamuk, Thomas Steinfeld, Wolfgang Scheppe and Simonetta Carbonaro are represented with contributions.

the-detourist-100.org

(Thank you Manuel)

Swiss Lullaby

It’s quite amusing to think that this is the Swiss version of making your kid fall asleep. Talk about sending subliminal, ambitious messages. Made me chuckle! (By KienerToys, unfortunately not to be found on their site)

(thank you Gio, via panenutella)

Fontself

Sneak peek of Fontself Mobile by a Swiss startup called Fontself offers a suite of colorful, customizable mobile fonts. Their current library of typefaces makes me shiver, but I love the idea.

(thank you Maria)

Remade in Switzerland

Victorinox has a new brand called Remade in Switzerland. The designs are by the young designer Christopher Raeburn from England. He is known for his pioneering work creating ethically aware and innovative men’s and womenswear collections from re-appropriated military fabrics. An MA graduate of the prestigious Royal College of Art in 2006, Ræburn launched in 2008 his label utilising decommissioned military stocks of uniform and parachute fabrics to create functional, intelligent, and meticulously crafted garments.

Check out this stop cool stop motion video.

(thank you Jens)

Soap Flakes

Swiss Nathalie Staempfli designed two ingenious soap dispensers that turn a soap bar into beautiful little soap flakes. One version attaches to the wall and allows you to use it with one hand. The other version is a grater that can stand by itself. It can be placed in the same way as a shower gel or shampoo.

Soap bars are more concentrated than liquid soap which has an ecological benefit: You don’t transport water around the globe and they only use paper for packaging. The solid blocks can easily be piled and allow a greater space efficiency during transportation.

This invention already made my week: Soap Flakes.

(Thank you Jason)

relativity

The first official exhibition of the london based gallery ‹between› featured 10 young designers and design studios around the world. They were all invited to think and respond to the meaning of the word ‹between›.

Swiss designer Marcus Kraft contributed a triptych which was an attempt to translate Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity into a piece of concept art: Sometimes, one second can change your whole life. On the other hand, a whole year can feel very boring, unimportant and dull. What if one year is as long as one day or even one second? — Maybe there’s no difference at all.

Typo Basel

Here’s a post for my Swiss readers:

Are you into Typography and live near Basel? Then don’t miss the first installment of Typo Stammtisch Basel – a recurring, informal event to bring together makers, users, and lovers of type. This first Typo Stammtisch will take place January 22, 7pm, at Stellwerk Basel, Vogesenplatz 1 (directly at Bahnhof St. Johann).

Yes, I wish I could go.

ps: Stammtisch is one of my alltime favorite German expressions.

(via Roland Stieger)

2011 diary

If you’re into paper timers, you should consider this playful 2011 diary by Swiss Julie Joliat with more than 50 connect-the-dots puzzles. But that’s not all, it also contains a lot of useful information, like maps, popular holidays, wine chart, monthly and weekly plannings. (It’s currently sold out but more should arrive early January!)

ruckXbob

RuckXbob is a combination of backpack and bobsled. The below video is a bit long/slow, but at 3:13 you can see the ruckXbob in action. What I find impressive is that it seems to work perfectly fine in powder. Looks like so much fun! Wheeeee!

It’s a new Swiss product and their site is currently in German only. But I am sure, if you email them, they’ll respond.

Wogg 49 built-in cupboard

I am a WOGG fan as it is. This Built-In Cupboard just pushed me over the edge. Yes, please!

The Kindness of Strangers

During a lovely conversation with a young German designer, we both agreed that well established designers here in NYC are down to earth, humble and approachable. Something that is entirely not the case in Germany, she said. And I agree. I am regularly amazed at how lovely and humble so many of these super-established designers in our industry are. I never forget when I met Steff Geissbuehler for the first time. He sat down with me and we had a 20minute chat and bonded over our common Swiss roots.

Or take Michael Bierut who so generously agreed on giving a CreativeMornings talk in January of this year. Not only did he give a talk but a brand new talk on clients. (Anyone who knows how much time it takes to put a talk together must be equally humbled by this as I was!)

The list goes on, add Steven Heller, Debbie Millman, Paola Antonelli etc.

One of my readers pointed me to this wonderful article called The Kindness of Strangers by Jessica Helfand. I love the part where Jessica talks about Milton Glaser:

I have heard that Milton Glaser will never accept a social invitation if it means canceling a class, because his students come first. This makes him a rock star in my book, and makes me wonder if we should start teaching ethics in design school. If charity begins at home, how can we proclaim new and progressive agendas of social change without examining ourselves, our students, our profession?

Here’s to the rockstars in our industries that stay humble and approachable!

The Kindness of Strangers, by Jessica Helfand

Mummenschanz

I am ridiculously excited about Swiss Mummenschanz’s current NYC visit.

Mummenschanz is my alltime favorite Swiss Pantomime Troupe. In the wordless universe of Mummenschanz, the ordinary becomes extraordinary when common materials and everyday objects—such as wires, tubes, boxes, and even toilet paper—all spring to life as fantastical characters. Abstract shapes and forms also interact in surprising ways to reveal some timeless truths about human connections and relationships. Trust me, the result is a wonder-filled, visually stunning spectacle and family entertainment that sparks the imagination and transcends cultural barriers.

Buying tickets now.

Circula

Circula is a *beautiful* garland made of translucent paper and jewellery silk, with magnetic stainless steel weight. A product by Switzerland (yay) based Taet-Tat.

lichtscheibe

Some of the things I buy for my kids I actually buy for myself. Yes, I admit it. Lichtscheibe falls into that category. It is a fascinating little illustration of colour theory: rotate the discs in their primary colours (red, blue and yellow) and combine them with each other to create the secondary colours (purple, orange and green). The suction cup allows you to fix the discs to a window and thus catch and play with the light coming from outside.

Lichtscheibe is beautiful and educational. Total winner. And hey, it’s SWISS! #yay

Olaf Breuning

Olaf Breuning is a Switzerland based artist. His work makes me look:


CAN SOMEONE TELL US WHY WE ARE HERE ??, 2006


SNOWMEN, 2006


INDEPENDENCE DAY, 1997


CLOUDS, 2008

Retro Photography of Modern Switzerland


Project Clack! by Zürich photographer Matthias Bünzli is an artistic throwback to the beginnings of travel photography.

(via NewlySwissed)

The 80s in Swiss TV

Now here’s a video that my Swiss Readers will appreciate. It’s a quick overview of Swiss TV shows in the 80s. I do remember pretty much all of them. (I’d love to see an equivalent of US TV shows.)

(via bloggingtom)

Steff La Cheffe

Steff La Cheffe is a 23 year old Swiss from Breitsch, Switzerland. Yes, in case you were wondering, that language in the above song is indeed swiss-german. For those of you that don’t know. Swiss-German is a spoken-only language and most of the time sounds like you have a sore throat. I send a hat tip to Steff La Cheffe for pulling it off to actually make swiss german sound hip and cool.

(thank you Pascal)

Swissair Logo

Thanks to all my readers that sent me the link to this fantastic post over on Wanken about the Swissair Logo. It’s a beautiful overview on how the Swissair logo developed over time.

Zurich/CreativeMornings with Dr.Peter Hogenkamp

After a fantastic first Zurich/CreativeMornings at Google Zurich with Ario Jafarzadeh talking about Priority Inbox, I am excited to announce our second Swiss chapter CreativeMorning with Dr.Peter Hogenkamp, head of digital at the NZZ Group.

The event will take place on October 8th, 2010 and will be generously hosted by supercool Cafe Casablanca (photo), in the heart of Zurich.

More info over at zurichcreativemornings.eventbrite.com. You will be able to add your name to the list starting monday October 4th, 11am. (Mark your calendars, we fill up quickly!)

A big thank you to Daniel Frei, who is running the Zurich chapter!

Watch the video of last months talk by Ario Jafarzadeh
Photos of last month’s event.
Follow Zurich/CreativeMornings on Twitter.

A big giant thank you to our breakfast sponsors Cafe Casablanca and Kalkbreite Optik. (YAY!)

Follow Zurich/CreativeMornings on Facebook.
Follow Zurich/CreativeMornings on Twitter.

FREITAG am Donnerstag: Talk 3

This thursday will be last of our three «FREITAG am Donnerstag» talks, a mini lecture series I am curating and partially moderating for FREITAG, to celebrate their new REFERENCE collection.

So far, Khoi Vinh and David Rowan have been so generous to share their thinking and insights in two exciting talks. This thursday, Peter Hossli will be sharing his thoughts on the topic of journalism at the FREITAG REFERENCE editorial space in Zurich that the bros. have set up for the month of September. (read more here)

Space is extremely limited (50 spots max). 25 spots will go to a carefully selected group of people but 25 slots will each time be available for swissmiss readers. Maybe you? (No worries, for those of you who can’t make it either because you are too far away or you didn’t get a slot, we will tape the talks and then share here on swissmiss.)


Peter Hossli, Reporter SonntagsBlick Magazine
September 23rd, 8.30am – 1oam
Moderated by the FREITAG bros.


Send us an email if you’d like to attend this thursday’s talk with Peter Hossli. (These talks will be in a rather intimate setting and we anticipate a lively discussion after each talk. We’d love to have people attend with a serious interest in the topic of journalism and media.)

Send your email to [email protected]. (Please note this event is in ZURICH!)

We will get back to you and let you know if you made it on the list.

Base

I dream of a loooong (!) table in my home. I never want to run out of space for dinner guests to join the table, conversation. This beauty of a table caught my eye. Designed by Switzerland based This Reber.

Zurich/CreativeMornings Video: Ario Jafarzadeh

2010/09 Ario Jafarzadeh | Google from Zurich/CreativeMornings on Vimeo.

Our speaker at the first official Zurich/CreativeMornings was Ario Jafarzadeh, Experience Designer on Google’s Gmail Team. In his fantastic talk, Ario shared the thinking and processes applied while working on Priority Inbox. The event was generously hosted and sponsored by Google Zurich. Thanks to Steve Rogers, Director of User Experience EMEA, for making this possible.

A big giant thank you to the team of Redsmoke Productions for their amazing work on documenting the event. (How adorable is that YAY-bubble-blob-sound in the beginning?)

Follow Zurich/CreativeMornings on Twitter.