Prix Batail­lard x mudac

© Agence Muto

The Swiss design landscape is enriched this year with a new award: the very first Prix Bataillard x mudac for graphic design.

A fresh perspect­ive on Swiss graphic design

Born from a collab­or­a­tion between the Pierre and Nouky Batail­lard Found­a­tion – celeb­rated for its dedic­a­tion to nature and culture – and mudac, Lausan­ne’s lead­ing museum of contem­por­ary design and applied arts, this award shines a spot­light on the excel­lence, innov­a­tion and creativ­ity of Swiss graphic design­ers.

Driven by a shared desire to cham­pion Swiss talent and to high­light the vital role of graphic design in contem­por­ary soci­ety, the Batail­lard Found­a­tion and mudac have joined forces to create this unique new award. Graphic design, a discip­line at the cross­roads of art, commu­nic­a­tion and tech­no­logy, thus gains fresh offi­cial recog­ni­tion, allow­ing it to shine even more brightly. Through this initi­at­ive, the two insti­tu­tions aim to provide design­ers with the resources they need to elev­ate their prac­tice to new heights.

The Batail­lard x mudac Prize seeks to show­case the rich­ness and diversity of Swiss graphic design, while encour­aging exper­i­ment­a­tion and crit­ical think­ing. It targets a segment of the design community that is rarely celeb­rated: mid-career design­ers, already recog­nised for their achieve­ments and brim­ming with creat­ive poten­tial. This prize honours a body of work distin­guished by its relev­ance, origin­al­ity and engage­ment with contem­por­ary issues. It also serves as an encour­age­ment to continue along this path. With a substan­tial endow­ment of CHF 20,000, the award is designed to enable the winner to pursue a personal project, whether that means under­tak­ing inde­pend­ent, non-commer­cial research, renew­ing their equip­ment or build­ing an archive of their work.

The winner

The jury unan­im­ously praised Zurich-based graphic designer Dafi Kühne for his distinct­ive approach that bridges the digital and the hand­craf­ted. Founder of the studio babyink­twice.ch, Kühne brings bold new life to the art of typo­graphy. By blend­ing tradi­tion with exper­i­ment­a­tion, he breathes fresh energy into the world of art print­ing, reviv­ing its spirit in the age of arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence.

The jury

To ensure the award’s excel­lence and cred­ib­il­ity, a jury was formed bring­ing together repres­ent­at­ives from the two found­ing insti­tu­tions, along with one external expert and one external special­ist. Their mission: to select the designer who best embod­ies the spirit of the Batail­lard x mudac Prize. Rather than focus­ing on one or two specific projects, the jury eval­u­ated each design­er’s over­all body of work. Their criteria included outstand­ing qual­ity and tech­nical mastery, essen­tial prerequis­ites, but above all, an innov­at­ive approach, a strong creat­ive vision and a visual concept that goes beyond the mere play of colours and typefaces. They also took into account the pedago­gical role and, most import­antly, the inspir­a­tion each candid­ate’s work brings to their peers.

© Agence Muto

Marco Costantini Director of mudac
Sylvie Rottmeier Head of Communications at mudac
Barbara Fournier Vice-President of the Fondation Bataillard
Board
Béatrice Béguin Member of the Fondation Bataillard Board
Barbara Junod Curator of the Graphic Design Collection at the Museum für Gestaltung, Zurich
Roger Emmenegger Photolithographer

The mudac

Graphic design plays an essen­tial role in mudac’s iden­tity: a cross-discip­lin­ary field combin­ing art, commu­nic­a­tion and tech­no­logy, it shapes our visual culture and our rela­tion­ship with the world. Through its collec­tion, its visual commu­nic­a­tion and now the Prix Batail­lard x mudac, the museum affirms its role in support­ing graphic design­ers and promot­ing Swiss graphic design.

The Fond­a­tion Batail­lard

The Fond­a­tion Pierre & Nouky Batail­lard was estab­lished in 1990 by Pierre Batail­lard and his wife Nouky, a poet. Its mission is to protect nature, support artistic creation and preserve cultural herit­age. In the realm of the arts, the Found­a­tion focuses on awards for graphic design and liter­at­ure, reflect­ing the couple’s deep connec­tion to these creat­ive worlds.

Pierre Batail­lard (1927–2008) enjoyed a remark­ably prolific career as a graphic designer, leav­ing an endur­ing mark on the visual iden­tity of Switzer­land, partic­u­larly in the canton of Vaud, during the latter half of the 20th century. His name is asso­ci­ated with an impress­ive array of logos, illus­tra­tions, posters, public­a­tions and signage. He also gained recog­ni­tion through exhib­i­tions in Switzer­land and abroad and was three times a recip­i­ent of the European Museum of the Year Award. On a more personal note, Batail­lard was also a painter and photo­grapher. Today, his work is preserved in several herit­age insti­tu­tions.

Pierre Bataillard, designer graphique et co-fondateur de la Fondation Bataillard.

© Fondation Bataillard

Fondation Bataillard