Duration: Five years.

Location: St. Gallen, Switzerland.

Education: BA in design from Hochschule Luzern – Design & Kunst, Lucerne, Switzerland.

Career path: After graduating in 2008, I worked at various agencies and studios in Berlin, London, Zurich and St. Gallen. I helped set up a small advertising agency and left after five years to focus on the cultural field of graphic design. In 2014, I founded my own studio for graphic design and typography in my hometown of St. Gallen, which is a medium-sized city in Switzerland. Since the birth of my son two years ago, I’ve been spending about 60 percent of my work-life balance at work.

My interests are specifically in the print sector with a strong focus on typography. My work often takes the form of identities—be it for a music festival here in St. Gallen, for a local music label or an exhibition design at the Naturmuseum St Gallen—because most of my projects are very local. This is a result of my network of local contacts, which is how I get most of my work.

Cultural influences: Of course, the long history of Swiss typography and graphic design influences me, but I also love the graphics of constructivism, and I love the art of the Russian suprematist movement.

Favorite projects: My latest project, which is a self-initiated book documenting the 100-year history of speleology in Eastern Switzerland. The book features previously unpublished photographs, sketches, diaries and plans from the pioneers of cave exploration in St. Gallen. I partnered with fellow graphic designer Daniel Weber from Data-Orbit and archaeologist Sarah Leib, and we bumped into this treasure trove of artifacts and decided to make a book with it.

To finance the book’s printing, we started a crowdfunding campaign in the summer of 2018. After that was successful, we began working on it. Sarah was responsible for the text, and Daniel and I dove into the archives and photographed material: some were 100-year-old documents of the explorers and some were their finds, including 50,000-year-old bones of cave bears and tools of the first humans. Daniel and I also created the layout and the design concept. The book is a unique, intensive work that took the three of us more than a year.

Work environment: Currently, I share my studio with five other graphic designers. It’s like a small oasis—our second home. We cultivate an enriching exchange about contemporary graphic design, but also about music, films, art and exhibitions, among other things. Because I work alone, this exchange is extremely important to me and my work.

Aspirations: I’m happy continuing to work in a cultural environment and being able to make a living from it, but I’m interested in teaching young designers as well.