The Prize of Success

On the Swiss scene, the Swiss Design Awards (SDA) are the most important example of these tournaments. They are also one the most generous design competitions that I have come across. Open to all Swiss citizens and residents, they are free to enter and offer an unparalleled cash prize paired with an exhibition during Art Basel that attracts more than ten thousand visitors. The winners, between 15 and 20 of them, each take home CHF 25 000. The money helps to launch careers and to develop projects in which designers take risks; and the prize also acts like a seal of quality for the winners. The SDA thus create a benchmark for the Swiss design scene – they define a version of success.But the awards have not always been as powerful. In fact, they were in a crisis in the 1990s: fewer designers applied, and the specialised press was highly critical of the competition. Seeking to address these issues, the competition relaunched in a new form in 2002. This reorganisation had a particularly important impact on graphic design; it is at the centre of The Prize of Success, a book which retraces the awards’ history and the durable effects the 2002 relaunch had on the Swiss graphic design scene.The SDA introduced new rules which made space for self-directed projects and aimed to get close to the needs of practitioners. Their goal was to become a node in the Swiss design networks. While they succeeded in regaining relevance after their relaunch, the SDA’s new position in the scene came with a few side effects.

Focused on the niche
One of the first noticeable consequences of the awards’ reorientation was the disappearance of so-called “commercial” design amongst the awarded projects, which were all in what a design journalist called the “niche economy” of design for culture and self-initiated projects. This represented the end of a long arc traced by design promotion. When the SDA were founded in 1917, professional organisations ruled the field and defined what “good design” was. Design promotion was perceived as synonymous with promotion of the economy, and commercial design was awarded as well as design for culture. Over time, however, the balance shifted. The Swiss Confederation took control of the SDA, and by 2002, the jury members focused on the niche economy.The relaunch in 2002 was also an attempt at reflecting professional changes. The digital revolution had enabled a new professional model to emerge: all anyone needed to launch a studio was a laptop. In parallel, designers increasingly practised their discipline as a lifestyle rather than a simple job. To attract more submissions to their competition, the SDA associated themselves with this “new school” of designers. This new generation became increasingly involved in the jury of the SDA, and their tastes shaped the definition of “good” design, which was by now synonymous with experimental, self-initiated or cultural work.While the relaunch was successful in repositioning the SDA, it also came at a price. The new generation of designers took control of the SDA and made it their own. Through that process, the SDA did succeed in becoming a node in the Swiss design network, but perhaps not in the way the Federal Office of Culture had planned. Instead, when the SDA were recuperated by the newcomers, they absorbed the competition; the most successful designers who won the SDA were all part of the newcomers’ networks. This becomes evident in the list of repeat winners and their connections to jury members. The case of type foundries is particularly edifying: those who had a link with the jury were in a much better position to win.

Closed circuit
To be clear, the awarded designers were fully deserving of their win. However, the networks of design functioned like a self-fulfilling prophecy or a closed circuit in the world of the SDA. The consequence was a series of blind spots. Women were vastly underrepresented on the juries and in the list of winners. Designers from the vocational route (as opposed to higher education) disappeared from the awards. Most outsiders to the networks, for instance those located outside of the Zurich and ECAL scenes, were also underrepresented. And finally, many other types of design were not included in the awards. The niche economy had taken over the awards and imposed its controversial professional model, which is often associated with long hours, precarity and a sense of identification with work as a lifestyle. These and other issues are explored at length in The Prize of Success, which is available from April 2024 as a print edition as well as an open access format.