School

The FHNW Art + Design campus (Campus Dreispitz) is located at Freilager-Platz 1, 4002 Basel. The Institute of Visual Communication is in the high-rise building D, on the 5th & 6th floors. Like I mentioned, take Tram 11 (Aesch) to Freilager, and the VisComm will be in the first and tallest building you see on the right. Learn more at Campus of the Arts.

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So you probably know by now that the Swiss school schedule is slightly different than in the United States. I started school mid-September and the semester lasted until mid-January (the masters program went until February); however, I’m not sure if this is consistent or adjusts depending on the year Either way, because I had a coop to get to, the teachers allowed me to finish my projects early so I could fly home the end of December. They are really good about working with whatever schedule you have, as long as you communicate clearly with both your advisors and instructors. Depending on what coop you have after your study abroad semester, you may not need to leave early.

The school itself is an excellent institute. It’s smaller than DAAP, but that felt like a benefit. The program was intense but in the opposite way that DAAP is. Let me try to explain! The way my schedule worked was this: Mondays consisted of a series of (English-spoken) design-related classes, where the goal was strictly learning (no busy work, tests, etc). This day most resembled the college schedule we are used to. Then Tuesday and Wednesday I had Typography (one of three options, with the others being Motion/animation, and Image-based aka photography/layout, of which you pick during registration) while Thursday and Friday was Information Design. Both these studios did semester-long projects. In typography, we created our own typeface and in Information Design we participated in an icon design competition (see the Phaistos project). On these days, class is pretty much an all-day thing. You are supposed to be there from 8:30-4:30 (flexible, though) and it's up to you to work. This sounds exhausting, but is high-key great. Some days the teachers are there, sometimes they are not, and there’s normally an hour-long lecture a week per studio. The projects allow room for you to choose your own direction, one that you are hopefully passionate and excited about. This is where the intensity came into play, because you dive really deep into your specific project, and the teacher is there to guide, not tell you what to do. You definitely gain self-confidence and learn a lot about your design process! Because of this type of schedule, there is rarely any work outside of class time (which was amazingly refreshing). And finally, some lectures are in German, but it’s a quick learning curve as you get used to the design vocabulary. The teachers and students are also very helpful at translating anything you don’t understand.