The USM Design Grant is a study grant launched by the FONDATION USM to encourage innovation by rewarding a student’s project. The grant amounts to CHF 25,000. This competition takes place each year, alternating between Geneva and Lausanne, and is granted in turn to students from HEAD/Haute école d’art et design Genève and ECAL/Ecole cantonale d’art de Lausanne.

The 8th edition of the USM Design Grant awarded by the FONDATION USM rewards the project of Rebecca Alfandary, Emma Grosu and Phinn Sallin-Mason, students in the Visual Communication department of ECAL. During the service design course, third-year students from the Graphic Design, Photography and Media & Interaction Design bachelors collaborated on multi-media projects. The theme of this collaboration was the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals). The theme “For a good cause, make the SDGs a reality” aimed to promote causes that were close to the hearts of each group of students. All projects were composed of at least two distinct supports, including a primary and a secondary support. Students had the freedom to choose the most relevant media for their projects, whether it was a website, publications, posters, a video sequence and even virtual reality.

Design Grant 2024:

REBECCA ALFANDARY,
EMMA GROSU,
PHINN SALLIN-MASON,
Anthracite

“The Anthracite project aims to raise public awareness of the dangers of light pollution, which threatens the survival of nocturnal insects and affects biodiversity in Switzerland. Through an edition combining popular science and photographs, the project creates a fragile balance between poetry and urgency. Anthracite also comes in two other forms: a visual installation composed of images and a video teaser. These awareness-raising materials immerse the viewer, notably by adopting the point of view of an insect. They invite us to feel the direct effects of this pollution generated by humans, in order to encourage us to better protect the insects concerned.”