Henry Dunant, born in Geneva, lived from 1828 to 1910. He was the initiator of the International Red Cross, dedicated his life to this visionary idea, and played a key role in its realization. The last eighteen years of his life were spent as a guest in seclusion at a former district hospital in Heiden, Appenzell. After extensive revitalization, a museum was established there to honor the life and work of Henry Dunant. The exhibition, conceived by Kaba Rössler and Nadine Schneider and designed by Atelier Andrea Gassner, presents a contemporary display – multilingual and inclusive. The tight sequence of rooms on the ground floor served as a framework for a coherent dramaturgical progression of themes, content, and staging.

The journey begins right at the centrally located entrance. The Red Cross and the Red Crescent – the emblematic symbols of the international committee – are not simply depicted; they are meant to be discovered. Attention is rewarded when, upon looking at the mirrors on the ceiling, the white seating cubes on red carpets transform into the well-known symbols. In the left wing of the building, we encounter spaces for encounter and multimedia dialogue. The sequence of rooms in the right wing is organized around three main topics: the vision and principles of the ICRC, Henry Dunant’s life path, and his existence and rehabilitation in Heiden. Sensually tangible key elements are placed in the center of each room, while walls and window openings are used as displays for content delivery.

Stone sculpture in the first room: Four towering stone slabs, slanted menacingly into the room, are held together by a red band, preventing them from toppling. This stylized cross is inscribed with seven key words that form the foundation of the Red Cross's principles. These words describe humanitarian values that must apply even in the extreme aggression of warfare.

Passage in the middle room: Dunant’s life was marked by both great successes and misguided paths, as well as deep crises. Four towering arches create shifts in perspective and direction within the room, symbolizing the fractures and triumphs in Dunant’s life. The installation is accompanied by a timeline, with additional information available via foldable printed materials mounted on the wall.

Room within a room: We are now in the very place where Henry Dunant, two floors above and over a hundred years earlier, became a hermit for many years. Four semi-transparent, movable fabric panels form an almost enclosed, yet walkable, interior space, making this "cocooning" experience palpable.

 The windows of the rooms offer us unusual views: key messages on translucent fabric panels, the outside world framed through colored glass as picturesque images, and monitors seamlessly integrated into the wall openings, showcasing video testimonies from credible witnesses. It is the coherent script of this focused exhibition, with its impactful scenes, and a bold, creative interpretation, that explains the museum's early success with the public, even in the first weeks after its opening. Visitors with mobility or visual impairments are also able to independently explore the exhibition in an engaging way, thanks to tactile orientation aids, audio stations, and the deliberate low hanging of exhibits.

The circle plays a significant role in the new family center of the Nenzing community—whether in the fairy-tale-like architecture with its rounded arches on windows and doors, or in the guidance system featuring pictograms and elements specifically designed around circles. The facility is called "allesamt." This name, developed during a workshop with the client, has a pleasant ring, feels familiar, and conveys the essence of the community's vision: inclusiveness. It welcomes all the village's children, as well as their parents. The "allesamt" lettering is prominently placed on the building's street-facing edge. The seemingly random spacing between the letters—both large and small—mirrors the rhythm of the façade's design, transforming the name into a logo and emphasizing its phonetic charm.

Pictograms as Play
For concise and memorable room labeling, the center uses names derived from local community parcels and an abbreviation-based counting rhyme familiar to children:

"Be La Gu – Ro Ha Ru – Mo Ma Hei – und du bisch frei!"

These two-letter terms designate the various functions of the rooms in the building. However, it's the combination with graphic symbols that makes them easy to remember for both children and adults. To draw attention to this sign system and encourage playful interaction, changeable pictograms have been installed at child-friendly heights. For example, in the central dining area, colorful discs on a plate invite rearrangement into shapes like flowers or emojis. In the sleeping areas, there are eyes that can open and close. In the sports and activity room, a spinning soccer ball is featured, while the oasis area showcases letters "riding" on waves.

Summed Up
The building is spatially organized into four diagonally offset "houses" running from west to east. To aid orientation, the main entrances and rooms for the three different child groups are marked in the primary colors red, blue, and green. Wayfinding begins even before reaching the building: in the nearby underpass, large dots on walls and ceilings grab attention. Additional dots appear as floor markings on sidewalks, in the parking lot, and along the path to the center.

The sign design by Atelier Andrea Gassner seamlessly integrates visual and verbal elements into the architectural concept. Here too, the playful, colorful guidance system fits naturally into the overall design, adding an imaginative accent and extending the story of this new communal living space in a creative way. The overarching goal is to significantly enhance the identification and connection to this positive space for children and families in Nenzing.

There are a few consistent symbols used for visual identification of pharmacies. We often see the serpent’s staff, originally the attribute of the god of medicine (Aesculapius) – sometimes used in relation to a stylized apothecary’s scale or twisted into the capital letter „A“ for the Austrian Chamber of Pharmacists. Internationally however, a green cross is commonly used to signify pharmacies and medical areas. This symbol serves Atelier Andrea Gassner as a visual building block for the appearance of the new pharmacy in Feldkirch-Tosters. Formal elements of the green cross are interwoven in the lettering „Apotheke Tosters“ itself, forming a striking word and picture mark.

Architecture means, above all, designing and giving form. The intention was that the client’s “core product” should not occupy the foreground of his own public profile too assertively. Atelier Andrea Gassner has been working for years for the well-known Zurich architect Roger Boltshauser. The concern is graphic design using the language of modern architecture. Clarity of form, unobtrusiveness and aesthetic appropriateness are the focus of the design, Entirely in the sense of German industrial designer Dieter Rams “less and more”. In a dynamically growing process printed material, business stationery, books and digital communication media are created for the architecture practice and partner businesses. Interaction and scalability are primary design means In the new media. Distance and approach as well as entry shape our perception of architecture. These dynamics provided the guideline for the new web design. Visitors are met by a wall of images; they come closer and enter the individual projects. The respective contents open up gradually with the self-scaling image grid. Searching and finding becomes a kind of virtual excursion to the project world of this successful Zurich team of architects.

“Am I a letter or an image?” Behind this question is a game consciously played with perception, or, to put it more precisely, the idea of a tilting image as a label. Our perception of letters conditions us to read signs as codes. Whereas with images it is the forms and colours that occupy the foreground of our perception The prestigiouis Swiss diamond-cutting business “Zipangu” was looking for a suitable trademark that would meet its exacting standards in terms of quality. Linking the letter “Z” to the crystalline form creates the picture of a diamond and a memorable image. By typologically developing the name to the same high standard Atelier Andrea Gassner created an original word-image trademark. The basic graphic design of the appearance and the various applications consistently pursue the aim for an elegant, one could almost say classic image. For example, the stationery was made using special printing stock with raised steel embossing and pop-up cards with individual concepts for portrait and product photography.

The logo is based on the idea of a seal. We are familiar with the seal as a form of certification that conveys commitment, security, and legality. The traditional circular shape, the coat of arms of the Austrian state as a national emblem, a modern font family and the names of three notary’s offices are the ingredients for a strong joint brand architecture. Differentiation is introduced by the different names and colours. Designed as responsive, the websites derive their life from “icons of navigation”. Theme-related illustrations function as a primary interactive guiding element of the graphic user interfaces. The photographs show authentically the personal aspects and the people behind the legal paragraphs Responsive web design means a design concept that is adaptable as regards both illustration and application, from the wide monitor to the small smartphone. And in both landscape and portrait format. In an age in which digital communication increasingly takes place on the smartphone, responsiveness is an important design factor.

For many people, the notary’s office is a “necessary evil” rather than a helpful service point for dealing with important things in life. This cooperation between different notaries takes a new path and presents itself as a modern service business. By creating an intelligent profile Atelier Andrea Gassner shows how contemporary corporate design can clearly convey the qualities of a serious and trustworthy business. The logo based on the idea of a seal. We are familiar with the seal as a form of certification that conveys commitment, security, and legality. The traditional circular shape, the Austrian state coat-of-arms as a national emblem, a modern font family and the names of the three notary’s offices are the ingredients for a strong joint brand architecture. Differentiation is introduced by the different names and colours. The modern visual language for graphic design, typography and photography in both print and web conveys sociability and openness and, at the same time, a sense of seriousness.

How should an architect communicate – his team, his achievements, his ideas? Architecture comes from a creative act. The creation itself should serve the architecture client and not, at least not excessively, the architect’s own presentation. With a calm, appropriate design Atelier Andrea Gassner creates a contemporary graphic ambiance for the way in which an Augsburg architecture practice presents itself to the public. The results are pragmatic signs, typographies, and functional concepts for visual communication. These are applied to the basic settings and project folders, to presentation charts and digital means of communication. In his introduction to semiotics Umberto Eco notes: “Once it is established that architecture can be regarded as a system of signs, it is, above all, these signs that must be characterised.”

Dr. Christoph Binder’s core area of competence lies in assisting small and medium-sized businesses aiming to internationalise their business. He communicates his knowledge and intercultural experience through reflective personal mentoring processes for staff and managers who wish to or must prepare themselves for deployment abroad. We placed the rounded, open “C” as a visual anchor at the centre of image. The dotted form symbolises the multi-national network of the business. When used digitally, the rows of dots in the logo are distinguished from each other by different shades of grey and sizes and can be activated by a cursor reaction. Alongside the symbol’s interactive »usability« the effect is a surprisingly three-dimensional development. In the printed form through the sharp-edged blind embossing the logo appears tactile, spatial and at the same time elegant. In typographic terms the logo is framed by type cuts from the typeface family »Scala« – a reinterpreted serif-stressed Renaissance-Antiqua by Dutch typeface designer Martin Majoor.

The contributions in this book deal with Lech as a place to live and an economic unit, with its natural setting and with the history and identity of the Walser people. The various authors were allowed to decide on the focal points of their contributions. The major design challenge lay in finding a uniform design framework for the scientifically-based contents and the variety of visual material. The strictly flush alignment of the double page ensures coherence. The generously sized edge column allows a variety of uses and provides the space needed for very different combinations of text and image. The Trinité family of fonts, a modern book antiqua by Bram de Does, determines the typography of the continuous text. For the marginalia and function texts Foundry Sans by David Quay and Freda Sack is used in a reduced size. The type design is differentiated and, despite the considerable density, can be read with comfort. The strict basic modulor is never a shackle but rather a support for an open book design that makes skilful used of the white area. The book core, which is worked through from the smallest detail to the large scale, is produced in excellent lithographic and print technique and finished and bound in a bibliophile manner. The book core is packed in a newly developed concept for the full linen front and back endpapers and in a dust jacket that can be “worn” on either side. It shows a photographic winter or summer motif from the Lech area, both of the same size.