Museum of Design, Art museum in Zurich, Switzerland
The Museum of Design in Zurich has two locations: the listed main building on Ausstellungsstrasse, designed by Adolf Steger and Karl Egender and reopened in 2018, and the Toni-Areal in Zurich-West, a converted former yogurt factory shared with the Zurich University of the Arts. The main building holds an exhibition hall, gallery, Swiss Design Lounge, education studio and café beside a park with a pond; the Toni-Areal also houses the collection archive, open on guided tours.
The museum grew out of the Kunstgewerbemuseum founded in 1875. In 1933 it moved with the School of Arts and Crafts, established in 1878, into the listed building by Adolf Steger and Karl Egender. The 2014 opening at Toni-Areal united all four collections, and after renovation the main building reopened in March 2018.
The museum's name comes from its predecessor, the Kunstgewerbemuseum (Museum of Arts and Crafts), founded in 1875. Its four collections grew from a teaching collection for the School of Arts and Crafts, now the Zurich University of the Arts. The poster collection, with over 380,000 posters, focuses on Switzerland, Europe, Japan, Cuba, the former Soviet Union and the USA.
You can visit the collections on multiple days throughout the week, and it helps to check ahead which location holds the subjects that interest you most. Each site is well-connected to public transport, so planning ahead based on location makes your visit more efficient.
The poster collection is one of the world's largest, with examples from many countries and time periods showing how graphic designers have moved people to action through image and text. Seeing these pieces reveals forgotten campaigns and the evolution of visual communication across continents.
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