Paola De Martin, born 1965, is a textile designer, co-founder of Zurich-based fashion label Beige, and a design researcher. Her groundbreaking research focuses on classism and other forms of discrimination in Western culture, and is rooted in her own experience as the child of an uneducated migrant working-class family.

Lucie Meier, born 1982, was appointed creative director of the global fashion brand Jil Sander in 2017, following previous engagements as a designer with Louis Vuitton and Balenciaga, and as an interim co-director of Dior. Her position and expression as a designer remain unimpressed by the fashion world’s eternal hustle.

The achievement of Luciano Rigolini, born 1950, is shaped by his own photography as well as by his work as an educator and producer. His series Urban Landscapes earned him international recognition as an artist in the early 1990s. He directed the creative development of auteur films with French-German TV channel ARTE, from 1995 to 2005. Alongside his work as a photographer, he has produced films by renowned artists such as Laurie Anderson and Naomi Kawase.

Switzerland’s Federal Office of Culture has awarded the 2024 Swiss Grand Award for Design to Paola De Martin, Lucie Meier, and Luciano Rigolini. This book introduces each of them through a concise text and an interview, as well as a brief biography, illustrated with images from their archives.

Text in English, German, French and Italian.