Fifty Years Iconic
50 Years of Swiss Design
From 11 September to 1 November 2026, the Red Dot Design Museum in Essen presents the exhibition “Fifty Years Iconic • 50 Years of Swiss Design”. The Basel-based duo Silvana Conzelmann and Jean Jacques Schaffner look back on five decades of graphic design and agency life. Alongside important milestones, the exhibition presents works that reveal the creative diversity of their practice: photography and illustration, typography and poster design, as well as brand design and visual identities.
“I see it as a great honour,” says Silvana Conzelmann in an interview with the Basler Zeitung. “The museum is a wonderful place with a strong design heritage, where major international names are also presented.”
Jean Jacques Schaffner adds: “We are the first graphic design agency to be featured in a dedicated special exhibition. Hopefully, this will happen more often in the future, because it is important to us that our profession becomes more visible.”
The Art of Leaving Things Out
No easy task: the Schaffner Conzelmann archives contain around 35,000 works spanning 50 years. The exhibition can therefore show only a small selection from their complete body of work.
Alongside important milestones are works that reveal the agency’s creative range: typography, illustration and photography, packaging, façades and wayfinding systems, as well as campaigns and visual identities. Together, they offer an insight into a design philosophy that has evolved over five decades.
Design Philosophy
Schaffner and Conzelmann believe that the solution already lies within the problem. That is why they are not afraid of the blank sheet of paper. They have never been short of ideas – and precisely for that reason, they believe there is never just one perfect solution.
For them, good design goes hand in hand with the brand message and depends on craftsmanship. At the same time, they move naturally between different disciplines, seeing themselves as both graphic designers and communication experts.
This brings us back to the exhibition title, “Fifty Years Iconic • 50 Years of Swiss Design”. Schaffner Conzelmann’s work is rooted in the long tradition of Swiss graphic design and shaped by a strong foundation in design.
Over five decades, they have continually reinterpreted these principles and applied them to a wide variety of challenges. And with Delphine Conzelmann, the next generation is already ready to carry the baton into the future.
