The Swiss Design Awards competition is a hundred-year old design award and one of the three means of design promotion by the Swiss government's Federal Office of Culture, along with the Most Beautiful Swiss Books and the Grand Prix Design. They are open to Swiss designers and to designers resident in Switzerland. Around 17 prizes of CHF 25,000 each are awarded each year.
Competition procedure and selection process The Federal Design Commission (previously known as the Federal Commission for Applied Arts) acts as the jury. The commission is assisted by recognised experts, who it invites for the jury.
The type of work accepted in the competition includes graphic design, products and objects, fashion and textile design, photography, scenography and mediation, media and interaction design, and design research.
The competition takes place in two rounds. In the first round, participants submit an entry. The candidates selected by the Commission are invited to a second round, where they present their work at the Swiss Design Awards public exhibition. The exhibition takes place every year in June, at the same time as the Art Basel and Design Miami/Basel exhibitions, and attracts more than 12'000 visitors every year. The committee selects the winners shortly before the opening of the exhibition.
The competition is influential in Switzerland. It is critically reputed and its relatively high money prize can exert a positive impact on designers' careers.
History The competition was founded in 1917 as a sister competition to the Swiss Art Awards, which had been running since 1898. In 1917, the Swiss government created the Federal Commission of the Applied Arts (FCAA) to support the applied arts via grants, exhibitions, subsidies for professional associations and general financial backing for the applied arts.
The FCAA was initially under the control of the professional associations Schweizerischer Werkbund SWB and L'Oeuvre. From the 1960s, in the international context of social norm upheaval, the government began a process of reviewing cultural policy. A group of experts was asked to provide advice, which became known as the Clottu Commission.
In the 1990s, the Swiss Design Awards in particular, and the Federal Office of Culture's approach to cultural policy in general were heavily criticised by the Schweizerischer Werkbund. This contributed to a redefinition and relaunch of the competition in 2002.
In 1997, the government celebrated 100 years of Swiss Federal Design promotion with the publication Made in Switzerland.
Winners (2016–2025) The following table lists the winners of the Swiss Design Awards from 2016 to 2025, as published by the Swiss Federal Office of Culture. In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the physical exhibition and final judging round were canceled, and no official award winners were named.
Year Category Winner(s) 2025 Design Research Herding wool - Alix Arto, Emma Casella & Yihan Zhang Fashion & Textile Design Didier Angelo Josiane Martinho Plisseebrennerei Textilatelier Eva Ott Graphic Design Adrien Kaeser & Adeline Mollard Marc Hollenstein Minjong Kim & Juanjun Feng Studio Nüssli+Nuessli Media & Interaction design Akuto Studio Photography Laurence Rasti Miranda Devita Kistler Santiago Martinez Benedetti Product Design dversa.studio Laure Gremion Renaud Defrancesco Mediation & Scenography Anna Zimmermann Collectif Tu es canon - ASA-HM 2024 Design Research ECOMADE Robin Luginbuhl Fashion & Textile Design Annina Arter Augmented Weaving MINI ETIQUETTE Graphic Design Simone Farner & Naima Schalcher Sylvan Lanz Ornari Project Media & Interaction design Ted Davis Studio Harris Blondman (Harry Bloch & Joris Landman) Photography Lena Amuat & Zoë Meyer Johanna Hullár taje Product Design Beat Baumgartner Studio Eidola Meret Walther Mediation & Scenography NCCFN Group 2023 Design Research Dimitri Reist Salvatore Vitale Fashion & Textile Design Sherylin Birth Anastasia Bull Rafael Edem Kouto Yvonne Reichmuth, YVY Martin Schlegel, TDS Textildruckerei Arbon GmbH Graphic Design Chiachi Chao Benjamin Ganz Pauline Mayor & Loïc Volkart zweikommasieben Magazin: Dorothee Dähler, Kaj Lehmann Mediation Front Row: Tara Mabiala & Camille Farrah Buhler Photography Thaddé Comar Tamara Janes Laurence Kubski Product Design Dimitri Bähler Carlo Clopath & Serge Borgmann 2022 Design Research Claudia Colombo Fashion & Textile Design DANZ PROTOTYPES AG Graphic Design Hammer Adeline Mollard Offshore Media & Interaction Design Urs Hofer Linn Spitz Mediation & Scenography FUTURESS Old Masters Photography Jeremy Ayer Anne Morgenstern Jenny Rova Product Design Maxwell Ashford Silvio Rebholz Sebastian Marbacher Ursula Vogel 2021 Fashion & Textile Design Virginie Jemmely Mariel Manuel Ottolinger (Christa Erika Bösch & Cosima Gadient) Graphic Design Eurostandard (Ali-Eddine Abdelkhalek, Pierrick Brégeon, Clément Rouzaud) Hannes Gloor Jonathan Hares Weichi He Olga Prader Luca Schenardi Mediation Dafi Kühne Edition Moderne (Julia Marti & Claudio Barandun) Photography Marc Asekhame Sabina Bösch Quentin Lacombe Products & Objects AATB (Andrea Anner, Thibault Brevet) Noa Wynona Betsche Alexandra Gerber Studio 2020 - - 2019 Fashion & Textile Design Rafael Kouto Sandro Marzo Ottolinger (Christa Bösch, Cosima Gadient) Graphic Design Fabian Bremer, Pascal Storz Ard (Guillaume Chuard, Daniel Nørregaard) Ondřej Báchor Ann Kern Sylvan Lanz Photography Marc Asekhame Solène Gün Lukas Hoffmann Products & Objects Egli Studio (Thibault Dussex, Yann Mathis) FILIPE & VIRICEL (Micael Filipe, Romain Viricel) Dimitri Nassisi Julie Richoz Scenography BUREAU (Daniel Zamarbide Elizondo) Mediation common-interest (Corinne Gisel, Nina Paim) 2018 Fashion & Textile Design Rafael Kouto Xénia Lucie Laffely Mikael Vilchez Graphic Design Studio Harris Blondman (Harry Bloch & Joris Landman) Julia Born Céline Ducrot Marietta Eugster Dan Solbach Photography Zoé Aubry Senta Simond Jean-Vincent Simonet Products & Objects Christophe Guberan Simon Husslein Adrien Rovero Laurin Schaub Mediation Hammer (Sereina Rothenberger, David Schatz) YET magazine (Nicolas Polli, Salvatore Vitale) 2017 Fashion & Textile Design Vanessa Schindler Julia Seemann Mikael Vilchez Graphic Design Dinamo (Johannes Breyer, Fabian Harb) Robert Huber Johnson / Kingston (Michael Kryenbühl, Ivan Weiss) Omnigroup (Luke Archer, Leonardo Azzolini, Simon Mager, Frederik Mahler-Andersen) Studio Feixen (Raphel Leutenegger, Daniel Peter, Felix Pfäffli) Photography Erwan Frotin Jean-Vincent Simonet Products & Objects Michel Charlot Damian Fopp Max Frommeld & Arno Mathies Kueng Caputo (Lovis Caputo, Sarah Kueng) Bertille Laguet Sebastian Marbacher Mediation Depot Basel (Rebekka Kiesewetter, Matylda Krzykowski, Heidi Franke) 2016 Fashion & Textile Design Lucie Guiragossian Vera Roggli Julian Zigerli Graphic Design Alice Franchetti Pause ohne Ende (Matthias Hachen, Mischa Hedinger) Teo Schifferli Photography Simone Cavadini Etienne Malapert Laurence Rasti Manon Wertenbroek Products & Objects Christophe Guberan VELT (Stefan Rechsteiner, Patrick Rüegg) Scenography Kollektiv Krönlihalle (Seraina Borner, Barbara Brandmaier, Markus Läubli, Christoph Menzi, Andrea Münch, Thomas Stächelin)
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