Benzin: Young Swiss Graphic Design showcases the work of young Swiss designers. The bright pink-colored cover catches your eyes first. As you turn the pages, numbers of works and interviews of spirited young graphic designers who lead the current Swiss graphic arts scene welcome you with an excellent layout. It’s definitely a must-see book for those who are into graphic design.

First of all, please tell us who you are.

Thomas Bruggisser and Michel Fries are Benzin. We are the editors and designers of Benzin, Young Swiss Graphic Design and studied five years ago Graphic Design at Monika Gold‘s, DGM, Zurich.

Please tell us about the book ‘Benzin: Young Swiss Graphic Design‘.

The book Benzin takes a look inside the laboratories of today’s young Swiss graphic scene. Based on our research, we come up with a personal selection of design. Many of the artworks were unpublished. The book’s focus is on the actual work of the designers, though Benzin also examines the attitudes and the environment out of which this work has emerged.

How did you get the idea to produce the book?

Choosing graphic design for a magazine article about unknown Swiss Graphic Design, we found a huge amount of interesting artwork waiting to be published.

Is there any standards to include them?

Benzin showcases the work of committed and promising young Swiss designers. A call for entries brought 80 portfolios in different qualities. We layered out all the works in a big hall and chose 45 portfolios to be published. First of all, it’s our choice. We were looking for works to be published in a book. That means: no screen design or multimedia, but typefaces, posters, flyers, illustrations and commercial works. Lots of people asked us to contribute with a project.

It also has designers’ interviews, not only artworks, and the binding and layout of the book look wonderful. What did you care about the most when you were doing the layout? Or what was hard for you?

A book has always to step behind the presented artwork. Nevertheless, we tried to make it sexy looking in a bookshop.