modularity and water

sushi goodness!


We took our northern field trip this weekend. Left thursday morning, with the class, for an eight hour train ride to zurich. zurich ended up being exactly what we needed. we were filled with swiss design, modularity and minimalism. helvetica was everywhere and it felt good to see the san serif used properly. we had free time thursday night and so lindsy, adrianna and i ate sushi and it was delicious. zurich felt a lot like iowa because it was chilly and we had to wear coats and scarves and mittens. i liked the coldness, it actually felt like november. and it was great to see a taste of fall with changing leaves, we haven't gotten much of that in rome.

poster (plakat) museum



become one with the posters



zurich is fun




sigi odermatt and i



friday we went to a poster museum where we saw a collection of well known posters and designers in switzerland. from there we went to the gestalung kunst museum and saw an exhibition of designers competing against one another. there was some great product design and informational design as well as beautiful designed typefaces. had some free time after this and walked around for a while, then met back up with the class to meet odermatt and tisi. they are two, swiss designers; odermatt started in 1950 at age 24 and later on hired rosmarie tisi and have been designing/working together ever since. odermatt is no 80 years old and talked about his extensive poster collection because he no longer designs. tisi gave a lecture and showed slides of her work and we had an opportunity to ask them questions and go to their studio to have books signed. odermatt was hilarious, he spoke very little english and so we had a translator but regardless we still found him quarky and laughed continuously at him. linds and i were excited that we understood most of the german he spok
traditional swiss meal of weiners! and to get the full swiss experience you need synthesizer in the background played by a man with a bad mullet and his wife on the tamborine, while dancing to madonna in german.



after our 2 nights in zurich we got an eight hour train to venice and spent a night there. we saw saint marc's square and freely walked around and did our christmas shopping. we didn't ride any gondolas but had to take the vaporetto on the water to get from island to island (works like the subway). we played with the pigeons, ate marzipan, looked at venician glass, and laughed harder than i think we have this whole time.








mom and dad you should be proud, i purchased a can opener and have been drinking upside down since.