Swiss graphic design compared with Irish graphic design

probe

Switzerland is the best designed country in the world in virtually every respect. Street signs, use of symbols rather than words, shop design, public transport design, multi-lingual everything, yet managing to keep things simple, clear and graphically appealing. Whether it is the design of an invoice form or a *****luxe hotel.

A polar opposite to Ireland. Complex. Indecipherable. Like the Book of Kells in some respects – but 21st century Ireland is not as ornate :-(

The art of simplicity and clarity is so important in the globalized world of today.

This 'blog' has some good examples of Swissness:

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/07/17/lessons-from-swiss-style-graphic-design/

dumac

It reminds me of that famous speech by Orson Welles about the cuckoo clock in "The Third Man".

“In Ireland for 800 years they had warfare, terror, murder, famine, bloodshed and rebellion but they produced wonderful Belleek pottery. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had 500 years of democracy and peace and what did that produce? Akzidenz Grotesk and Neue Haas Grotesk (a.k.a Helvetica)."

probe

Switzerland has "produced" more than any other country on the planet on a per capita basis, from an unfertile, mountainous small plot of land...

http://www.abb.com - everything from railway kit to HVDC cables that transmit electricity under the sea between Norway and the Netherlands
http://www.richemont.com - brands include Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, IWC, Mont Blanc, Dunhill, Baume & Mercier, Piaget, Chloe etc (Northern Ireland has Belleek, Waterford Glass is all but gone...)
http://www.clariant.com - speciality chemicals
http://www.givaudan.com - flavours and fragrances
http://www.holcim.com - second largest cement company in the world
http://www.nestle.com - world's largest food company (fertile Mont Blanc...)
http://www.novartis.com - one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies
http://www.roche.com - another of the world's largest pharma companies
http://www.swissre.com - Schweizerische Rück is the world's second largest Re insurer
http://www.sgs.com - 55,000 employees in 1,000 laboratories and test centres around the world
http://www.swisscom.ch - eircom copied it's name, but unfortunately little else!
http://www.migros.ch - most innovative food and general merchandise retailer in the world - owned by its employees - supports Swiss farmers and food producers - not a Tesco or M&S in sight in CH
http://www.coop.ch - similar to Migros - but owned by its customers
http://www.georgfischer.com - clean water ....
http://www.swatch.com - perhaps the hottest intro of any website

(All with excellent, multilingual website design)

The above is a small sample of organisations based in Switzerland - not foreign multi-nationals who have put up a factory or whatever there, a la Ireland. The country delivers much more to planet earth than Helvetica - [which has a lot of imitators - Arial comes to mind - imitation is the sincerest form of flattery :-)]

A few others:

www.rail.ch - the best railway system in the world. The website incorporates door to door integrated travel info (eg providing how do I get from 123 Main St, Town X to 234 Second Road, Town Y, using public transport, and I want to arrive there at 12h45 - type solutions)

http://www.swissinfo.ch
http://www.homegate.ch - excellent property finding website

One could go on for hours.....

experiMental

Maybe Switzerland is more liberal towards the process of accepting ideas from entrepeneurs and designers - the work is performance-driven rather than business plan driven. In Ireland, when you're pitching an idea, you're judged on your experience and your own business plan, as well as the point of your idea.

In Switzerland, probably, the work is judged by its own quality and then the business plan is designed around it.

I mean, if Ireland will shift the focus of accepting design ideas, the environment will be so much better.

probe

experiMental wrote: »

Maybe Switzerland is more liberal towards the process of accepting ideas from entrepeneurs and designers - the work is performance-driven rather than business plan driven. In Ireland, when you're pitching an idea, you're judged on your experience and your own business plan, as well as the point of your idea.

In Switzerland, probably, the work is judged by its own quality and then the business plan is designed around it.

I mean, if Ireland will shift the focus of accepting design ideas, the environment will be so much better.

Absolutely. Forget business plans and Résumés. Create functional and thoughtfully designed content that will blow people's minds and the €€€,€€€,€€€ will quickly follow in the right direction....

probe

No Helvetica in this example - not Swiss either - but Swiss simple functionality..... two guys set up a few guest houses in Nice (starting in 2003), designed by one of France's leading interior designers Matali Crasset.

She designed everything down to the knives and forks. All the food they serve is bio (= organic in Saxon trash talk), and everywhere you venture in the establishment is a breath of fresh air - right up to the roof-top swimming pool overlooking Nice with a view of the Alps.

http://www.hi-hotel.net/

Most of the website is in Courier font, simple, done in frames, and one can scroll across the pages to navigate the entire site. Videos (make by major TV channels - they have the ArteTV interview with Matali) so you can kick the tyres of the place before booking.

I suspect these guys didn't waste time on business plans :-)

Sonnenblumen

probe wrote: »

Switzerland has "produced" more than any other country on the planet on a per capita basis, from an unfertile, mountainous small plot of land...

http://www.abb.com - everything from railway kit to HVDC cables that transmit electricity under the sea between Norway and the Netherlands
http://www.richemont.com - brands include Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, IWC, Mont Blanc, Dunhill, Baume & Mercier, Piaget, Chloe etc (Northern Ireland has Belleek, Waterford Glass is all but gone...)
http://www.clariant.com - speciality chemicals
http://www.givaudan.com - flavours and fragrances
http://www.holcim.com - second largest cement company in the world
http://www.nestle.com - world's largest food company (fertile Mont Blanc...)
http://www.novartis.com - one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies
http://www.roche.com - another of the world's largest pharma companies
http://www.swissre.com - Schweizerische Rück is the world's second largest Re insurer
http://www.sgs.com - 55,000 employees in 1,000 laboratories and test centres around the world
http://www.swisscom.ch - eircom copied it's name, but unfortunately little else!
http://www.migros.ch - most innovative food and general merchandise retailer in the world - owned by its employees - supports Swiss farmers and food producers - not a Tesco or M&S in sight in CH
http://www.coop.ch - similar to Migros - but owned by its customers
http://www.georgfischer.com - clean water ....
http://www.swatch.com - perhaps the hottest intro of any website

(All with excellent, multilingual website design)

The above is a small sample of organisations based in Switzerland - not foreign multi-nationals who have put up a factory or whatever there, a la Ireland. The country delivers much more to planet earth than Helvetica - [which has a lot of imitators - Arial comes to mind - imitation is the sincerest form of flattery :-)]

A few others:

www.rail.ch - the best railway system in the world. The website incorporates door to door integrated travel info (eg providing how do I get from 123 Main St, Town X to 234 Second Road, Town Y, using public transport, and I want to arrive there at 12h45 - type solutions)

http://www.swissinfo.ch
http://www.homegate.ch - excellent property finding website

One could go on for hours.....

Some good examples there but you forgot all the big negatives like the dirty deed 'holocaust corrupt' banking, pharamceutical conspiracies, even the State owned Swiss Air had to be rescued. Nice but pretty boring place and most people cannot understand them anyways!

probe

Sonnenblumen wrote: »

Nice but pretty boring place and most people cannot understand them anyways!

While few non-Swiss can speak Schweizerdeutsch (aside from some Northern Italians, Voralbergers in Austria and Liechtensteiners), moving back to the thread, the entire world can understand Swiss graphics and signposting. Virtually everything is in symbols, rather than in text. The best signposted country in the world bar none.

A refreshing contrast to the stupid American style "Do not enter - go back" style road signs in English, and lots of other signage rubbish which is found in Ireland. Ireland is a third world country when it comes to communication, graphic design, and basic professionalism in this area :-(

http://www.astra.admin.ch/dienstleistungen/00127/00634/index.html?lang=fr

There is nothing boring about Switzerland aside from the fact that people are busy using their minds rather than hanging about in pubs and nightclubs! Switzerland makes over 25 billion a year from tourism - many times as much as Ireland makes. Hardly the mark of a boring country?

One wouldn't be surprised if Mr Sunflower is from Bavaria - you seem to love your Swiss neighbours down the road :-)

Sonnenblumen

*Snip*

Pixelcraft

why comment on a design forum if it's lost on you?

Sonnenblumen

On the contrary IMO the OP goes way beyond(insult Ireland/Irish etc) the scope of 'a design/art' debate and has essentially based an argument (ridiculous as though it seems) that everything which is Swiss is great and most of what is Irish is bad!!

Free speech? yes. Accurate? No!

I couldn't give 2Fs about CH but anyways, this is supposedly a digital art/design topic so let's see some Irish designers make a case for credible Irish design?

A bar of Irish chocolate for the best post:D

Sonnenblumen

Pixelcraft wrote: »

why comment on a design forum if it's lost on you?

I think you've answered it yourself!