Annual Design History Society Conference
“Memory Full? Reimagining the Relations between Design and History”

Session: Post-national design histories

Chairs: Davide Fornari, Robert Lzicar, Sara Zeller (representing “Swiss Graphic Design and Typography Revisited”)

The research team behind the project “Swiss Graphic Design and Typography Revisited” (https://sgdtr.ch/) aims to organize a panel at the annual DHS conference 2020 that broadens the discourse on Swiss graphic design and other national design narratives beyond their borders. Reflecting the conference theme “Memory full? Reimagining the Relations between Design and History”, this panel calls for papers that examine the migration of ideas, objects, people and collectives in connection with design. To outline some possible questions: How have foreign actors contributed to the construction of national design labels, such as Swiss graphic design? How did local and national design movements spread to other regions, and how were they received elsewhere? What have those movements conveyed to these regions and how are these exchanges remembered? How did practitioners contribute to the construction of (national) histories? How do designers approach this heritage nowadays? We would particularly like to motivate submissions, which contribute to alternative approaches that challenge existing national historiographies and canons.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Please submit the proposal for your contribution in English to infosgdtr.ch by 8 January 2020, including:

- Title of the paper.
- Abstract of the paper (not exceeding 300 words).
- Three keywords.
- Author’s full name(s) and affiliation(s).
- Brief professional biography (not exceeding 60 words).

The proposal must be in PDF format (file extension .pdf). Each proposal will be reviewed by members of the “Swiss Graphic Design and Typography Revisited” research team. Accepted applicants will be notified by 31 January 2020. The panel proposal will be submitted to the DHS 2020 conference call on 2 February 2020.