• Info Oxid Architektur, Zurich

      The architectural firm Burkhalter Sumi Architekten is now Oxid Architektur. The newly named firm is led by Yves Schihin and Urs Rinklef, long-term partners at Burkhalter Sumi. Bivgrafik worked with copywriter Florian Stenschke in the name-finding process and designed Oxid’s new visual identity, including its website.

      The firm’s name forms the geometrical basis for the graphic elements. In combination with the colour palette used in its structure, it engenders a clear yet generous formal interplay between the various graphic products. The concept is supplemented by the two-part wordmark, which arcs across each different format.

      • Commissioned by:

        Oxid Architektur, Zurich

      • Concept and design:

        Natalie Bringolf, Siri Bachmann, Matthias Huber, Rahel Imboden, Kristin Irion, Yvonne Schneider

      • Text:

        Florian Stenschke, Berlin

      • Realisation:

        2020

      • Programmed by:

        Marcel Stadelmann, Winterthur

      Oxid Architektur, Zurich
    • Info Museum of Natural History St.Gallen

      With the new building, the Naturmuseum St.Gallen (museum of natural history) was able to move into its own quarters for the first time. In seven exhibition spaces, different themes of nature in eastern Switzerland are presented and explained. In addition to the exhibition spaces, the building houses a Museum Café, a lab for young people and two event halls.

      On the façade, metre-high letters emerge subtly from the fluted concrete to subtly reveal the museum's name. Depending on the light and weather, the letters, when brightly illuminated, burst forth or recede into the façade. Inside, the building's signage references the careful architectural style. On and next to the wall cladding made of local sedimentary rock, brass letters guide visitors from the entrance to the museum foyer and up through the exhibition.

      Museum of Natural History St.Gallen
    • Info Cinema Bar Houdini, Zurich

      The illuminated golden lettering decorates and designates the cinema and bar Houdini located in the new housing cooperative Kalkbreite, lending the former tram depot a touch of glamour. The three-dimensional letters cast in golden hues stand out from the building’s façade by day, creating varied effects with light and shadows. By night, the lettering – illuminated from within and reflecting the city lights – takes centre stage.

      Lit-up numbering marks the five entry doors, while signage made of bronze and gold-printed doors echo the colour tone and materials in the architecture.

      Cinema Bar Houdini, Zurich
    • Info Schoolhouse Reitmen, Schlieren

      In homage to the structures formerly on the areal, the new schoolhouse, with its metal façade and saw-tooth roof, has an industrial vibe. Situated next to the main building with classrooms, kindergarten and daycare, the second school building houses a multi-purpose gymnasium with a roof-top playing field as well as music rooms.

      The school classes are distributed on three separate floors of the flat-roofed building; all can be accessed directly from the ground floor. The stairs to the various tracts are marked using large, isometrically shifted letters. The colourful modelling accentuates the 3D-effect of the letters. In addition, each tract has a designated colour that is echoed in the signage as well as on the floors and lavatories.

      • Address:

        Badenerstrasse 82, 8952 Schlieren
      • New build:

        2017
      • Architecture:

        Graber Pulver Architekten, Zurich/Bern
      • Commissioned by:

        City of Schlieren
      • Project team:

        Natalie Bringolf, Kristin Irion, Nadine Ochsner, Yvonne Schneider, Judith Stutz
      • Photography:

        Bivgrafik
      Schoolhouse Reitmen, Schlieren
    • Info Installation “6 fonts, 60 letters, 71 counters”, Zurich

      The exhibition “3D Lettering on Buildings” at the Zurich Museum für Gestaltung (Design Museum), located at the Toni Areal, ran from 7 December 2018 to 14 April 2019. Several Bivgrafik projects featured in the show. For the duration of the exhibition, the museum gave us free rein to play with the “north face” of the large entrance hall to the Toni Areal. The wall – twenty metres wide by seven metres high – is located next to the entrance to the museum’s exhibition rooms. The arrangements we created on the wall served a dual purpose: they were an advertisement for the exhibition as well as an independent project exploring the topic of lettering in architectural space.

      We took advantage of the opportunity to let negative space come to the fore. We added colour as the mood struck us, and we set lettering elements without regard for creating legible text. With their powerful presence, the 71 counters set the tone in the entrance hall. As of June 2019, a selection of the various arrangements can be viewed in the “Schaudepot” at the museum’s previous location.

      • Commissioned by:

        Museum für Gestaltung, Zurich

      • Concept and design:

        Natalie Bringolf, Kristin Irion, Laura Moor, Elias Müller, Mirjam Murer, Yvonne Schneider

      • Realisation:

        2018

      • Photography:

        Bivgrafik

      Installation “6 fonts, 60 letters, 71 counters”, Zurich
    • Info Rigi Apotheke & Drogerie, Zurich

      The new visual identity for the Rigi Apotheke & Drogerie was designed to convey the pharmacy’s competent and friendly service as well as its affinity to and support of culture. In addition to the logo with a claim, the exterior signage and colour scheme, and a series of illustrations – used in window displays, postcards and other media – lend the visual identity an individual touch and make it easily recognisable. Products designed include office media, window displays, postcards, shopping bags, wrapping paper, stickers, teabags, façade lettering and website.

      Rigi Apotheke & Drogerie, Zurich