Swiss Design Collection now public.
14.04.2025As part of its 150th anniversary celebrations, the Museum für Gestaltung is opening its immense design collection to the public as a permanent exhibition. The museum describes itself as home to the largest international design collection in Switzerland. The new permanent exhibition Swiss Design Collection presents around 2500 objects and invites visitors to design for themselves and deepen their knowledge.
Since 1875, the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich has been collecting exemplary objects to document important trends in design history and communicate them to a broad public. The internationally significant collections of graphic art, typography, poster design, textiles, product design and applied arts are rich in milestones of aesthetic and technical development.
The Swiss Design Collection offers insights into the collection’s work in four exhibition areas and invites visitors to delve deeper, interact and participate.
Highlights of the collection
The exhibition begins with a selection of important objects from the museum’s extensive collection. Around 2000 everyday objects, textiles and type designs from different eras invite visitors to discover the entire spectrum of design. A thematically curated poster wall offers a fascinating insight into the fascinating insight into the diversity and history of poster design. In addition, a selection of particularly striking logo designs from Switzerland will be presented, some of which still shape our visual memory today.
The view from the outside: The Forum
The Forum offers the opportunity to discover the collection from a variety of external perspectives. Selected contributions repeatedly open up new approaches and unexpected views of the collection.
As part of the “Curated by” format, the museum gives invited designers the opportunity to develop part of the exhibition according to their ideas. For the 2025 edition, for example, photographer Nicolas Polli from Ticino has photographically staged his selection of objects.
Another section is the “Voices of Design” video archive, which presents selected interviews with designers.
Do it yourself in the studio
The studio is part of the exhibition and invites the public to experience design actively and with all their senses. In a paper workshop, ideas and materials are available for children, young people and adults – an invitation to fold, experiment and design. And in the library, interested visitors can browse through books, exchange ideas or simply relax.
A walk into the archive
Around 580,000 objects from the fields of design, graphics, applied arts and poster design are stored in the basement of the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich. For the first time, the public can explore part of this archive independently as part of the Swiss Design Collection. A glass walkway leads through the two-storey shelving system and offers a spectacular view into the depths of the collection.
Here, the impressive furniture collection in particular is presented in a new light – with a focus on Swiss design.
Digital Guide
The Swiss Design Collection can be explored with a new digital guide. It contains articles on the objects, offers background information and design stories to listen to and introduces personalities from the world of design.
Educational program
The Swiss Design Collection offers a varied program that allows visitors to delve even deeper into the fascinating world of the collection and take a look behind the scenes. You can find out more in the agenda.
Opening hours
Tuesday to Sunday 10 a.m.–5 p.m., Thursday 10 a.m.–8 p.m.