I work as an artistic deputy, lecturer and postdoctoral researcher at ECAL/University of Art and Design Lausanne (HES-SO). I am also lecturer at Kingston School of Art, London. I regularly write articles and commissions for festivals, public institutions and private clients such as type foundries and design studios, and co-organise Behind the Books, an exhibition and discussion of the Most Beautiful Swiss Books in London.

My research focuses on Swiss graphic design history. After studying visual communication and graphic design at ECAL and the Royal College of Art, I earned a PhD in art history from the University of Bern. My thesis analysed the impact of cultural promotion on the field of Swiss graphic design by focusing on the Swiss Design Awards 2002 relaunch. I contributed to and co-edited a volume of the recent publication Swiss Graphic Design Histories (2021), which offers new perspectives on the history of the discipline.

I previously worked as an independent graphic designer in London and Switzerland. I freelanced for several studios, most recently Atelier Dyakova, where I worked for more than four years as a graphic designer and studio manager. I served as a lecturer and visiting lecturer at various institutions in Switzerland and in the United Kingdom, and as an associate researcher on the project “Swiss Graphic Design and Typography Revisited” (2016–2020). Between 2019 and 2022, I co-curated, organised and moderated the Weltformat Symposium in Lucerne.

I am currently a postdoctoral researcher at ECAL on the SNSF-funded research project “The Cultural Turn in Swiss Graphic Design from the 1980s to 2020” (2023–2027). The project examines the phenomenon of “cultural graphic design” – commissions for the cultural sector promising creative freedom and a definition of the profession as a lifestyle – in three stages: the emergence of new values (1980–1992), the development of a discourse (1993–2002) and its institutionalisation in federal policy (2003–2020).

Apart from academic writing (listed on ORCID and Google Scholar), I also regularly write for clients ranging from design festivals, magazines, public institutions and type design foundries. Amongst others, this includes Maximage/Maxitype, AllCaps, the Swiss Design Awards, RadDar, Progetto Grafico, Revue Diorama, Poster Tribune, Weltformat magazine and IdPure. 

In 2021, I earned a PhD in art history at the Graduate School of the Arts and Humanities at the University of Bern. I am now working towards publishing a book whose working title is The Prize of Success: The Swiss Design Awards 2002 relaunch and the networks of promotion. If you’d like to be kept updated about its publication, sign up to my newsletter (above) or follow me on social media.

I worked as a research assistant and PhD candidate on the research project Swiss Graphic Design and Typography Revisited (SGDTR) at the HKB. The SNSF-funded project culminated in the four-volume open-access publication Swiss Graphic Design Histories. I co-edited one of its volumes and contributed several chapters to the publication.

I have been co-organising Behind the Books, an exhibition of the Most Beautiful Swiss Books in London, with Mathias Clottu since 2019. We also organise a series of talks accompanying each year’s exhibition. 

I co-curated and moderated the Weltformat Graphic Design Festival symposium with Miriam Koban in 2019–2020, with Isabel Seiffert in 2021 and with Miriam Koban and Eva Schuler in 2022.

I work as a lecturer at ECAL. Since 2012, I have been teaching Critical History of Graphic Design to first year students on the BA Graphic Design. Since 2016, I also offer a Design/Research class to second year students. Finally I teach Graphic Design History to foundation and first year BA students across all disciplines since 2021.

I am a visiting lecturer on the Graphic Design BA at Kingston School of Art, where I teach a strand dedicated to publishing.

I have previously taught, given workshops, talks or guest critiques at the following institutions:

Bern University of the Arts (HKB), MA Design
Bristol University, BA Graphic Design
ECAL, BA Graphic Design
EPFL+ECAL Lab
Falmouth University, MA Graphic Design
HEAD Geneva, MA Fashion & Accessories Design
Kingston University, BA Graphic Design
Parallel School Lausanne
Royal College of Art, MA Visual Communication
SUPSI (Lugano), BA Graphic Design
University of the Arts London / Camberwell School of Art, MA Graphic Design Communication
Usine Kügler (Geneva)
Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), MA Visual Communication

I previously worked part-time for Atelier Dyakova as a designer and studio manager. Before that, worked as a freelancer for various clients including the Architectural Association, Cameron Mackintosh, COS, Idea is Everything, John Morgan studio, Jonathan Hares, Hauser & Wirth, and Studio Veronica Ditting. 

My studio clients included artists such as Amy Croft, the Demystification Committee, The Walking Reading Group and institutions such as ECAL, MACBA, Musées Cantonaux du Valais, RCA and the Whitstable Biennale.