Awarded
Roland Früh
Various design mediation projects
Design mediation
Awarded
Various design mediation projects
Design mediation
The Design Thinker
Roland Früh has an impressive track record. He was the first person in the history of the Swiss Federal Design Awards to submit a dossier in the category of 'Design Education' and win a prize for it - even though this category does not (as yet) exist. Thus he had to be assigned to the 'Other' category. For whereas usually only 'practitioners', i.e. designers, win this prize, Roland Früh was, as it were, the first 'design thinker'.
The art historian was not only awarded for his courage, however, but for his work carried out in the service of applied art education over the last four years. Roland Früh writes for various publications, teaches design history at the ECAL and is the curator of various exhibitions and events.
He is predominantly interested in graphics and book design. Already for his master's thesis, he conducted research on Swiss book design. Exhibitions such as 'Book Design in St. Gall' and '1946, 1947, 1948 – The Forgotten Years of the Most Beautiful Swiss Books' attest to his profound knowledge of and passion for the subject. The exhibitions are usually the result of cooperation with other practitioners and thinkers from the graphics and design scene. The project 'Sunday Pleasures', which has appeared in regular intervals since 2006, was based on cooperation of a special kind – not directly related to design. Centred around the theme of Swiss cooking traditions, this series of notebooks was nevertheless awarded a prize in 'The Most Beautiful Swiss Books' competition in 2009. Here too, Roland Früh came full circle.
In his exhibitions, Roland Früh invariably attaches great importance to accompanying events. Thus experts are regularly invited to shed light on specific subjects or to give workshops.
It remains to be said that perhaps Roland Früh was in part chosen for an award for his courage after all. Whereas art education has been well established in Switzerland for many years, the area of design still has some way to go in many respects. Education plays a very important role in making Swiss design visible, however. By awarding this prize, the Federal Office of Culture sends a signal and takes a first step in the direction of an actually long overdue recognition of design communication.
Anna Niederhäuser
Roland Früh
Born in
1981
Education
Art historian / publicist