Services

Alexei Jaccard

Alexei Jaccard’s life event made perennial

In collaboration with: Moléson Impression

Year: 2022
Client: Université de Genève
Location: Geneva

A graphic-spatial mural intervention on the walls of the Université de Genève to commemorate the life of “disappeared” activist Alexei Jaccard. Providing historical background to Operation Condor, and defining the disappearance as a crime against humanity and explaining its social impact.

A research group from Université de Genève initiated this project to commemorate the life of Alexei Jaccard. As well as and the many cases of forced disappearance related to the recent history of political events in Latin America. The commemoration took the form of informative mural on the entrance walls of the auditorium of Unimail, named after Alexei Jaccard.

The Mural Graphic Intervention

Since this summer, the space has been transformed into a place for information and interdisciplinary reflection. On the mural, a permanent graphic intervention unveils the history of Alexei Jaccard (whose body has still not been found). By providing historical background to Operation Condor, defining the disappearance as a crime against humanity, and explaining its social impact. Another wall is devoted to temporary exhibitions.

We designed a piece that covers the walls between the two entrances to the auditorium. Using a vivid and strong red, to not go unnoticed, and providing the context and facts of the disappearance of Jaccard. With it, an extended timeline, from 1952, the birth of Jaccard until 2022, celebrating the inauguration of the mural. It relates to the personal story of A. Jaccard with the chronology of political events and factors. It helps understand that A. Jaccard was only one case among many, and the dates that marked his life, were also the dates that determined the future of many countries.

The Context

In May 1977, a Swiss-Chilean student disappeared in Argentina. Alexei Jaccard was, officially, on his way to see his sick mother. She had moved to Buenos Aires with the rest of the family following the coup d’état led by Augusto Pinochet in 1973. In truth, the young man had crossed the Atlantic to join members of the Chilean Communist Party in exile in Argentina.

Photos : Samy Bouart Cart and Laurent Chiu

Alexei Jaccard - Unige - Graphic Mural Intervention

Services

Exhibition Design Interactive Installation Motion Design Signage Design Synchronised Screens Video Design

Enac 20 Years

Celebrating 20 years with 36 synchronised screens

In collaboration with : Garage Cube

Year: 2022
Client: EPFL
Location: Lausanne

ENAC celebrated 20 years by playing a continuous contemplative video, made of a thousand archive ENAC lab files. Through the 36 synchronised screens delimiting four areas of exhibiting labs. As well as showcasing 20 years of research, the video designed worked as part of the signage.

In 2022, ENAC organized an event to celebrate its 20 years in the Swiss Tech Center. For this occasion, they invited 60 labs to bring their creations and research realized over their 20 years of work at EPFL. ENAC inquired us to realise a visual complentative video our if the labs archives.

36 Synchronised Screens

The labs were organized into four sections corresponding to thematic work fields. We limited each section by a row of screens (36 in total) that outlined the area of the exhibition and created a visual scenographic signaletic. Each section was defined by a color, a name, and the position of display tables, within the screen space. We edited a continuous video (made of a thousand archive files) that passed through the different screens of each area.

The screens were synchronized in groups of 6 to 8, delivering an immersive space. We played with different tempos on the screen rhythmics to reach a dynamic composition of video, animations, and blocks of color.

The Context

Twenty years ago, EPFL created the ENAC Faculty by bringing together architecture, civil engineering, and environmental sciences and engineering, thus making it possible to embrace all the challenges of sustainability in the natural and built environment through an inter- and trans-disciplinary approach to research, teaching, and innovation.

Services

Art Direction Photocall Project Management Signage Design Stage Design

Was it real ?

An Atypical Celebration
Designing in times of Covid.

Year: 2020
Client: HEAD—Genève
Location: Geneva

Drawn by David Lynch esthetics: fake grass, red led lights, advertising billboards, and hefty typographical signs by the graphic studio Neo Neo were taking over Head-Geneve’s building for its graduation scenography.

At the end of each year, a diploma ceremony takes place to celebrate the completion of studies by students of The Haute Ecole d’art et Design of Geneva, HEAD. The brief is to come up with a themed entrance, stage, and photocall.

HEAD commissioned us to art direct the theme of this particular ceremony which was happening in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic. To illustrate this unusual context, the scenography was designed as a space in which reality and fiction interact. A place that questions what is real and what is an illusion.

David Lynch inspired scenography

Drawn by David Lynch’s aesthetics for the scenography, we played with materials like fake grass, red led lights, advertising billboards, and hefty typographical signs by the graphic studio Neoneo.

The main message, in a bright red color: “Was it real?” was a question used in all of the communication elements for the event. The letters were animated and hovering over the conference speakers, standing behind a grass-covered lectern.

Another message: “Reality Reality,” was set in space on a 6x4m billboard, in bright red led. As well as standing on a carpet of fake grass. The photocall staged a graphic souvenir for the diploma pictures.

A third message: “Welcome to reality!” billboard greeted the public. It was set at the entrance of the HEAD main building, covered with fake grass.

The Context

The Haute Ecole d’art et Design of Geneva, HEAD is renowned for the quality of its bachelor’s and master’s degrees. One can apply in Fine Arts, Cinema, Interior Architecture, Space and Communication, Visual Communication. As well as Fashion and Accessory Design. It has established itself as a leading school of art and design in Europe.

Photos : Giesbrecht Michel and Baptiste Coulon HEAD—Genève

Was it Real Installation Scenography Trojans Collective HEAD Genève - David Lynch scenography — Was it Real Installation Scenography Trojans Collective

Services

Art Direction Project Management Signage Design Stage Design

Open Day

A yellow grid on a black background: a transversal conference space

In collaboration with: A.D.O. Atelier des Ouates, Printcubator

Year: 2020
Client: HEAD—Genève
Location: Geneva

A pattern design merging graphic and space design, for a place of dialogue rather than a space for unilateral information.

The Haute Ecole d’art et Design of Geneva, HEAD invited us to collaborate for the 2020 Open Day edition, to design the signage and conference spaces that would guide the visitors through the school.

Merging graphic and space design

Our goal was to create a flat and transversal space for dialogue rather than a space for unilateral information. To do that, we intended to remove the distance created by heights, by placing the speakers and the public at floor level, on different heights of wooden cubes.

We conceived “Patterns” by merging graphic and space design with a common notion: a yellow grid on a black background.

The cubes emerged from our designed patterned floor, as if some of the cubes extruded from the ground. The floor pattern (yellow vinyle) could also be taken as a floor plan, delimiting the conference space, thus inviting seating between the cells, on the cubes, or on the floor.

Printed flags took the graphics from the floor to the ceiling. They marked the different locations of departments in the cube and at the entrances of the buildings.

The Context

The Haute Ecole d’art et Design of Geneva, HEAD is renowned for the quality of its bachelor’s and master’s degrees. One can apply in Fine Arts, Cinema, Interior Architecture, Space and Communication, Visual Communication. As well as, Fashion and Accessory Design. It has established itself as a leading school of art and design in Europe.

To welcome potential students and interested visitors, HEAD opens its doors every year. As each department exhibits a sample of its work in the different campus and presents its activity to the audience.

Photos : Giesbrecht Michel HEAD—Genève