Finally, we have a new head of the Design and Fine Arts Division at Hochschule der Künste Bern HKB / Haute école des arts de Berne HKB and are very excited about our future with Felicity Lunn!





Felicity Lunn wird ab März 2022 die Leitung unseres Fachbereichs Gestaltung und Kunst übernehmen. Sie tritt damit die Nachfolge von Andreas Vogel an, der die HKB Ende Februar 2021 verlassen hatte. Mit Felicity Lunn konnten wir eine ausgewiesene Fachfrau und intime Kennerin der zeitgenössischen Kunstszene sowie eine sehr erfahrene und empathische Führungsperson gewinnen. Wir freuen uns auf die Zusammenarbeit!

Our lecturer Matylda Krzykowski has launched a new TV show format to add the dimension of desire to the current understanding of design. It was shown at the swissdesignawards and can still be watched at https://www.wanteddesign.online/. Enjoy!





AIRTIME, Swiss Design TVOn view from September 20 - October 30, 2021WantedDesign is very pleased to continue its online program with a creative and fresh approach to presenting contemporary Swiss designers and practices to our viewers. This program is brought to the WantedDesign audience in conjunct...

Our alumnus Max Frischknecht was voted one of Switzerland’s “Digital Shapers 2021”, the 100 most important minds driving the country’s digitalisation by BILANZ and Handelszeitung. We can fully confirm this. Congratulations, Max! https://www.handelszeitung.ch/people/max-frischknecht



BTW: He has also redesigned and programmed our website, which will be launched soon. Stay tuned!





Der Werdegang des St. Gallers begann am Gewerblichen Berufs- und Weiterbildungszentrum der Stadt. Heute lehrt und forscht Max Frischknecht als Projektmitarbeiter an der Hochschule der Künste Bern, einem Teil der Berner Fachhochschule. Hier absolvierte er auch den Master of Arts in Design; der fol...

Our student Veronica Antonucci (Vanto.ch) has set up a vending machine with recyclable accessories for Laufmeter. For eight francs you can get handmade brooches, key rings, earrings or even a cable organiser. You can help yourself until Saturday at the Kornhausbibliotheken Bern in Bern. https://www.kornhausbibliotheken.ch/service/biblio-2030/nachhaltigkeitswoche?sc_src=email_5053948&sc_lid=162386969&sc_uid=bmB7FrUzys&sc_llid=7863&sc_eh=1eed91e6d7fdee841

Perhaps you have already read it in the newspaper: Bern is getting the first and only Swiss Centre for #DesignAndHealth! Congratulations to our professors Arne Scheuermann and Minou Afzali, who played a leading role in the development and submissions. We look forward to collaboration and new students who want to specialise in this field. Stay tuned! https://www.derbund.ch/22-millionen-fuer-swiss-center-for-design-and-health-in-bern-729569236169





Am Center for Design and Health soll untersucht werden, wie Design zu Gunsten der Gesundheitsversorgung eingesetzt werden kann.

Welcome to the Hochschule der Künste Bern HKB / Haute école des arts de Berne HKB, dear new students!





Wir möchten alle neu immatrikulierten Studierende an der HKB (und natürlich auch alle Semesterferien-Rückkehrer*innen) herzlich willkommen heissen! Während ihr euch nach der Immatrikulationsfeier heute Morgen nun wohl auf der «Tour de HKB» befindet, freuen wir uns darauf mit Euch heute Abend am HKB Fest auf euren ersten Tag anzustossen!

Minou Afzali, Professor of #SocialDesign at the Hochschule der Künste Bern HKB / Haute école des arts de Berne HKB, answered Der Bund’s questions about the recently opened max bill global exhibition at the Zentrum Paul Klee. Read the whole interview (unfortunately behind a paywall) at https://www.derbund.ch/design-kann-ausgrenzen-aber-auch-integrieren-732106517504.





Die Ausstellung «Max Bill global» zeigt den Designer, Künstler und Architekten als Brückenbauer zwischen den Kontinenten. Warum er für Gestalter bis heute ein Vorbild ist, weiss Minou Afzali, Design-Professorin an der Hochschule der Künste Bern.

A reminder: The fourth KULINATA – das Festival für nachhaltige Ernährung takes a look into the future. From the Master Design, our students Florian Jakober will discuss sustainable food for all in the Future Talk II at the KULINATA Eröffnungsfest, and Andrea Staudacher will discuss how Swiss food culture could change in the long term in the Future Talk III. Find the whole program at https://www.kulinata.ch/#.





Das Festivalprogramm 2021 steht fest!

It is not often that our graduates decide to do a PhD. However, it has never happened that one of our graduates is awarded a highly competitive and fully-funded Doc.CH fellowship of the Swiss National Science Foundation just a few months after graduation. Congratulations, Maya Ober! We are more than impressed by this achievement and wish you all the best for your important project “Between the Classroom and the Streets: Feminist Practices in Design Education in Buenos Aires, Argentina”, which you will conduct at the Universität Bern! https://www.snf.ch/en/FudOhqJphsFaU4wt/news/docch-snsf-supports-22-doctoral-students-in-the-humanities-and-social-sciences?





149 researchers applied for a grant under the Doc.CH funding scheme this spring, the highest number ever. The SNSF will now finance 22 doctoral theses.

We are looking forward to 12 new students (7 full-time, 5 part-time; 2 Entrepreneurship, 10 Research) and 1 visiting student, who will start their studies at the HKB MA Design this semester. Hasan, Setayesh, Veronica, Julian, Jasmine, Andrea, Martha, Magdalena, Dagna, Arlène, Lilith, Pania and Talayeh – a warm welcome to all of you!

💥🎉💸 Congratulations to our student Florian Jakober and our alumni Marius Disler, Xiaoqun Wu and Oliver Hischier for the Design Work Grants! Florian receives funding for the prototype development of his project Foodcoop Network, Marius a production funding for https://www.mikafi.com/ and Bienvenue Studios receives a project extension funding. At the same time, we would like to thank Pro Helvetia for this important funding scheme. You can find the list of all grants on https://designswitzerland.ch/2021/07/27/design-work-grants/.





20 projects were selected

Florian Jakober, actually a lecturer but currently a student in the Master Design, participates at the KULINATA in the Future Talk II “Vom Feld direkt ins Quartier – wie funktioniert das morgen?”. If you are interested, reserve September 18 from 12.30 and drop by at the Berner Generationenhaus! You can find the whole program at https://www.kulinata.ch/.





Das Festivalprogramm 2020 steht fest!

They made it! We congratulate our student Florian Jakober and his colleagues on the successful crowdfunding. With 294 supporters, they have completed the campaign "Foodcoops für Alle!" and received CHF 25,000. With this, they will develop a first beta version of the Foodcoop web platform and plan to launch it by the end of 2021. Read more about the project at https://wemakeit.com/projects/foodcoops-fuer-alle.





Foodcoops sind die nachhaltige Zukunft des Lebensmittelhandels: Wir entwickeln ein Starterkit und eine Webplattform, damit alle Interessierten in ihrer Nachbarschaft eine eigene Koop aufbauen können.

Most of our students have already graduated in January, but now you can admire their projects also on https://finale21.ch/ – and the website itself 🤩.

Our partners at the Berner Design Stiftung promote contemporary design from the Canton of Bern. Every year, they support designers from the canton of Bern working on specific projects and with personalised offers. You can find an overview of the funding possibilities at https://www.bernerdesignstiftung.ch/foerderung/. This year’s call for proposals ends on 10 August 2021.

Have you already taken a look at the Walk & Talk of the Finale 21 exhibition? Thomas Strässle takes you on a tour of the Division Design and Fine Arts diploma exhibition, with conversations with students, alumni, lecturers, and course directors. We only play a supporting role, but it’s still entertaining 😉: https://www.hkb.bfh.ch/de/aktuell/kulturelle-veranstaltungen/diplomveranstaltungen/gk-finale-21-21-06-28/





Der Höhepunkt des Studienjahres ist, wenn die Studierendenabschlussarbeiten im Fachbereich Gestaltung und Kunst gezeigt und verhandelt werden – coronabedingt mit eingeschränkten Besuchsmöglichkeiten.

Support the crowdfunding “Foodcoops für Alle!” of our lecturer turned student and hopefully soon again lecturer Florian Jakober (Afrika). In his master project, he develops a starter kit and a web platform so that all of you who are interested can build up your own co-op in your neighborhood. So if you are interested in this new sustainable approach to food distribution, feel invited to support it at https://wemakeit.com/projects/foodcoops-fuer-alle.





‼️First post of us since one year – must be something important‼️



The past months we focused on a self initiated project that doesnt exactly live on planet graphic design:



We are building up a network of foodcoops to empower people to take grocery shopping in their own hands.



In other words: Fuck you big supermarket chains, everybody now organises their own neighbourhood based food supply.



Why? Because in switzerland that’s more or less the only way to do so entirely sustaineable and still be able to pay for it.



(And it’s more fun than walk along supermarket shelves like a narcotised cow.)



Now we’re running a crowdfunding campaign for that and need your support: Please Donate!



Thanks 😘 Link in bio.

Our colleagues at the Institute of Design Research have recently completed an impressive project. Here is the Alain Findeli Online Library! “Alain Findeli is considered to be one of the leading design theorists of our time and the founder of design research in Francophone countries. His writings have been published in numerous books and journals, some of which are difficult to obtain. This gave rise to the idea of developing an online library in which Findeli's complete works would be made accessible to the public for the first time. The new online archive includes over 80 publications that Findeli published between 1986 and 2018.” Check it out at https://complete-works-alain-findeli.ch/.