Museum of Design, Zürich

The Museum of Design Zurich is a museum of design, visual communication, architecture and crafts. It is located in central Zurich, close proximity to the main railway station in District 5

The museum operates the large exhibition hall and the gallery, the foyer, the cafeteria and the shop and the vestibule in front of the lecture hall in the building of the former School of Applied Arts in Zurich. Another exhibition locations serve the housed in a former villa on Lake Zurich Museum Bellerive and the poster room. The four extensive collections of the museum (poster, graphic design and artwork ) are available to the public of international importance, and on request.

In the hall and the gallery of the Museum of Design Zurich, at the Museum Bellerive in the poster space thematic or monographic exhibitions, mainly in the fields of industrial and product design, crafts, fashion, textiles and jewelery, graphics, typography, poster and book design, photography, new media, film and architecture, interior design, scenography and public space.

• 3.1 Poster Collection
• 3.2 Design Collection
• 3.3 Graphics Collection
• 3.4 Arts Collection
• 3.5 Research and Services

History, architecture, locations

The Museum of Design Zurich emerged from the Museum of Decorative Arts founded in 1875 in Zurich. 1933 in relation to the museum and existing since 1878 Arts and Crafts School, today the Zurich University of the Arts ( ZHdK), which is now Grade II listed building by Adolf Steger and Karl Egender on the exhibition road.

The aesthetic and functional quality of the architecture characterizes the appearance of the building complex, which represents one of the most striking examples of modern architecture in Switzerland. Since 1968, the Museum of Design Zurich recorded the Museum Bellerive, which is housed in a former mansion from 1931 and houses the Decorative Arts Collection. The other collections are located vis -à-vis the main building on the Limmat river road ( Poster Collection ), and in a commercial building on the Förrlibuckstrasse (design and graphic collection ).

The Museum of Design Zurich is part of the Department of Cultural Analysis and switching the Zurich University of the Arts ( ZHdK).

Exhibitions

Most exhibitions at the Museum of Design Zurich are own productions created in dialogue with the museum's collections or from research projects partly.

The Museum of Design Zurich presents every year about five to seven temporary exhibitions in the hall and the gallery of the main building, smaller interventions within the museum, three temporary exhibitions at the Museum Bellerive and two temporary exhibitions in the poster room.

In the exhibitions usually interdisciplinary historical phenomena, contemporary trends and innovative approaches are scientifically sound presented for the general public as well as for a professional audience.

Scenography and visual communication

In the staging implementation of the themes and the concept of visual communication, the Museum of Design Zurich collaborates with established young set designers, architects and visual designers who change from project to project.

This approach leads to ever-changing exhibition and poster designs which cater for high design quality which claim to be considered experimental curiosity and regularly awards.

Special Events

The exhibitions at the Museum of Design Zurich are accompanied by guides, symposia, panel discussions, artist talks, lectures, film and theater productions, performances and concerts. An educational museum will offer each exhibition specifically developed.

Collections

The four collections of the Museum of Design Zurich emerged from the model collection from the Museum of Decorative Arts Zurich applied for teaching. Today, they are of international importance. Objects from the collections can be found in international research projects as well as exhibitions and serve within the Zurich University of the Arts ( ZHdK) the study of design solutions, materials, techniques and styles. A part of the collection is available online.

Poster Collection

The poster collection is one of the world's most extensive and important archive of its kind contains 330,000 posters, 120,000 of them opened and inventoried, documenting the Swiss and international poster history from its beginnings in the mid-19th century to the present.

The collection includes political, cultural and commercial posters. The design for historical reasons, geographical priorities are the Switzerland, Europe, Japan, Cuba, the Soviet Union and the United States.

Design collection

The design collection includes 10,000 products and 20,000 packaging that originate from well-known designers or represent anonymous designed everyday design. Collected serially manufactured products of the 20th century and the present, with emphasis on Swiss design.

The Swiss Confederation controls with permanent loan from the field of product design objects from the current design discourse in ( a division, which is funded by the Federal Office of Culture since 1989).

Parallel to the object collection an archive of Swiss design is constructed that contains concepts, project studies, design drawings, manuals, patents, advertising material, source texts, as well as parts of the studio, corporate and association archives and scientific research serves.

Graphics Collection

The graphics collection has existed since the founding of the museum. It documents the aesthetic, technical and cultural changes of the graphics in everyday life from Gutenberg to the present. The variety of objects and their orientation towards European graphic design is unique in Switzerland.

Originally created as an international model collection, the graphics collection includes almost all graphic disciplines, who were to teach in the former School of Applied Arts of importance. The core initially formed drawings, prints and illustrated books and textbooks from the 15th to the 20th century, followed later by the press prints, Ostasiatica, artist books, photography and commercial art.

Today, the collection activities on promotion and information graphics, font, typography and book design focused. The collection is developed with the latest works by innovative graphic designers and graphic designers, advertising agencies, designers as well as important discounts examples of the corporate design of important companies.

Arts and Crafts Collection

The more than 15,000 objects comprehensive arts and crafts collection is next to the graphics collection the oldest collection of the Museum of Design Zurich and one of the most important collections of international handicrafts in Switzerland. Once created as a collection for education, business and industry, the collection focuses on 19th and 20th century.

Geographically, it focuses on Europe, the USA and the modern-day Japan. It includes textile art, ceramics and glass from the historicism to the present day. The Art Nouveau department with groups of works by William Morris, Emile Gallé, René Lalique, Hermann Obrist and Henry van de Velde enjoy international reputation.

Among the highlights include a unique puppet collection of 20th-century artists such as Sophie Taeuber -Arp, and a significant collection of musical instruments from around 250 historic objects.

Research and Services

The collections are processed and researched in order to bring it into the context of an openness to cross-disciplinary projects from the current perspective continuously in collaboration with Zurich University of the Arts ( ZHdK) as well as other universities. In addition to site development, documentation and preservation ] services such as research, expertise and reproductions are offered.

Publications

Even misplaced or in collaboration with renowned publishers are the Museum of Design Zurich publishes texts that function as an integral part of the exhibition program. Among them are next thematic series such as the " Design Collection " or the " Poster Collection " also anthologies on classics of design history or current issues and monographs on pioneers of theory and practice.

Due to the nature of their design and drafting the publications of the Museum of Design Zurich themselves form a contribution to the history of design, which manifests itself in the awards and accolades often obtained.