Gwendolyn Ummel

Travizory Border Security SA | Overall identity

I'm in charge of all visual development and communication at the Swiss startup Travizory. As they reach governments and ministries, one of the main challenges is to make a strong impact as well as inspire confidence and safety. This can be done through all sort of medium but also strong minimalistic illustrations.

The use of pictograms, icons and strong images is also very important to stand out. For example, on social networks, a quote or a statistic accompanied by a visual will attract more attention.

Client: Travizory Border Security SA

LSK | Overall corporate identity

A couple of years ago, I redesigned the overall corporate identity of a kitchen furniture manufacturer. In addition to refresh the main logo, I created a set of secondary brand logos for the different kitchen lines and services. The set is recognisable with the mention « by LK » which is a radical simplification of the main logo.
Once the main logo and the set of secondary brand logos were confirmed, the biggest application was to create a website. I was in charge of the front end development and therefore designed the whole responsive website. An external agency was supposed to deal with the back end development but unfortunately the project never saw the light of day.
The third part of the project was to create leaflets and magazines to advertise each kitchen line and service. This brochure is a mock-up of the high-end kitchens, it was never produced as further developments of Laser Swiss Kitchen SA never saw the light of day.

Client: Laser Swiss Kitchen

J'accompagne

During the global 2020-lockdown, I created a logotype for the project "J'accompagne" (I escort), a community of researchers dealing with death and mourning in time of pandemic. I also developed a recruitment poster.

Client: Projet de recherche J'ACCOMPAGNE COVID-19 / Université de Sherbrooke, Québec
Website: www.jaccompagne.ca

New Harmony

Creation of the logotype and the visual identity. New Harmony is lead by Carole Constantin to help people with stress, anxiety, skin or weight problems. She acts as a life coach to bring about a new balance and energy. The logo and the overall identity use a tree with "stability" expressed in the roots and "renewal" in the leaves scattered around the trunk.

Client: Carole Constantin

Lexique de la vue

This lexicon is a popularisation of sight-related terms. It provides short and illustrated definitions through four main themes: anatomy, refractive surgery, optics and vision disorders. It intends to describe some often complicated words using minimalist and communicative illustrations. This project allowed to develop an illustrative language between aesthetics and education, aiming to ease understanding and the navigation throughout the lexicon. In order to obtain a colourful and playful book, the strict codes of index and scientific documentation needed to be transcended.

240 × 336 mm
Supervised by Nicole Udry & Gilles Gavillet

Pathologies

Pathologies is the summary of one and a half year of investigations about book collections and personal libraries. This research began with the matter of the impact of a book cover on its inclusion inside of a collection. Then this investigation carried on with a thorough review of the book cover’s design for great classical collections. Finally this study focused on the act of collecting. How do book lovers behave? What are their habits? This dissertation introduces 13 profiles, halfway between fiction and reality, which illustrate the quirks and disorders of these collectors.

130 × 200 mm / 180 × 240 mm
Supervised by Alexandru Balgiu

OSR - 1918/2018

During my last year of studies, my classmates and I were asked by the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (OSR) to develop a special visual identity in order to celebrate their 100th anniversary. The mandate included the development of an anniversary poster, as well as a couple of applications (single event poster, website, invitations, tickets, etc.) where we can see how the overall identity might work. I decided to create collages in order to show the time evolving as well as the diversity of images one can have while listening to orchestral music. The different basic colours each referred to specific series of concerts. As I was not sure it was a good idea to change the website just for one year, I decided to apply my design to concert posters, invitation cards and tickets.

895 × 1'280 mm (poster) / 310 × 450 mm (small posters)

148 × 210 mm (invitation cards) / 142 × 74 mm (tickets)

Supervised by Nicole Udry, Diego Bontognali & Guy Meldem

3D type Trellick

For this project I had to choose 1 subject within 12 others, 1 way to show it and if I wanted it to be a print, digital or way finding project. I chose "Brutalism - Typography - Print". Quite quickly I decided that I wanted to create a 3D typeface using laser cut technique. Thus I draw a really simple matrix in order to write every upper case of a geometrical sans-serif. Each letter is made up of 4 layers of Plexiglas stacked one onto another. Each layer has one part of the very simple form generated through the matrix of the alphabet. With very basic forms I was able to create for almost every letter one or two alternatives. As well as this brochure I created this fictional sign, showing the use of my typeface. The idea is that every brutalist building should have its own sign with the name and the date laser cut on it.

210 × 260 mm (brochure) / 80 × 110 mm (letter) / 960 × 410 mm (sign)
Supervised by Gilles Gavillet, Jonathan Hares & Aurèle Sack

Vinex

The aim of this project was to find a personal way to communicate a specific type of architecture. As I am a huge fan of Netherlands, I decided to work on the housing developed in Vinex spaces. Vinex is a town-planning policy created at the end of the 80’s in order to build new living areas fastly. Unlike other countries Netherlands tend to build single houses instead of block of flats. For the development I rapidly became fascinated by the way streets and houses are built in Netherlands. I spent hours looking at google maps and streetview because everything from above as well as from the street is so well constructed. The main inspiration for this project was the amazing book "Vinex Atlas" designed by Joost Grootens. The text in my edition actually comes from it. In addition I create a small colour chart which represents a mix of colours of brick as well as flower.

214 × 300 mm / 148 × 210 mm (colour chart)
Supervised by Nicole Udry

Zazzles

The purpose of this project was to create a magazine using the theme FAME. ZAZZLES is a magazine which mixes cats and lifestyle. We decided to explore fame into cats world, with the different breeds and the way people decide to have a cat farming. For this project, we took some pictures ourselves and asked some of our talented photographer friends. This magazine was printed in Indigo and bound by bubu, in Mönchaldorf, Switzerland.

205 × 290 mm
Supervised by François Rappo, I teamed up with Mélanie Blanc

Comme des frères

For this project we had to choose a road movie in order to create a poster. I picked the movie from French director Hugo Gélin "Comme des Frères". The aim was to select significant datas from that movie and then interpret them into infographics. Mine illustrates the timeline with all the flashbacks that occur during the whole movie. The final product is folded like a map.

148 × 210 mm (folded) / 594 × 841 mm
Supervised by Angelo Benedetto

Undisclosed Margaret

For this project we were asked to create a complete website about one famous woman. I picked Margaret Thatcher. In order to create a responsive website, I decided to show her through the eyes of 3 people in her entourage: her deputy prime minister (on desktop), her husband (on tablet) and her daughter (on smartphone).

Responsive Website
Supervised by Harry Bloch

Rihanna

This is an atypical editorial project. The purpose of the course was to create 2 posters: one with the whole wikipedia article of a random artist and one with only pictures of the same artist. Both posters had to more or less match. I picked Rihanna. I collected all my tests in one raw research book.

841 × 1189 mm / 140 × 200 mm (research book)
Supervised by Diego Bontognali

Didell

This typeface was first drawn by hand. For this project, I was completely free to draw any kind of typeface. I wanted to create a serif font. Then I vectorised my drawings and decided to radicalize the serifs. The typeface has become kind of a Didot revival. I illustrated my typeface with a poem of Victor Hugo as well as photographs from the talented Matthieu Venot.

217 × 302 mm
Supervised by Ian Party

Golf

I had to create a photo book using the theme A FIRST TIME. We decided to illustrate the world of golf and how a beginner might feel in this particular atmosphere. This project would not have been possible without the precious help of the Golf and Country Club of Neuchâtel. For this project, we took all the pictures ourselves. In order to show our pictures the best way possible, we decided to create a flatbook. This book was printed in Indigo and bound by bubu, in Mönchaldorf, Switzerland.

205 × 270 mm
Supervised by François Rappo, I teamed up with Mélanie Blanc

Tourists in Argentina

This project was realised during Summer University at écal. Within 10 days in Buenos Aires, the aim was to collect datas on tourists visiting the capital. These are the results from tourists interviewed on one of the major street.

80 × 180 mm
Supervised by Jonas Wandeler

Twelve selected works of Julien Vallée

For this project we were asked to create any kind of color chart. I decided to create a repertoire of all the colors used in twelve projects of graphic designer Julien Vallée.

240 × 300 mm
Supervised by Guy Meldem

Linear

This project is a fictional magazine created for a lesson with Harry Bloch at écal. The purpose of this edition was to offer the reading of 5 texts in English, French or German with their translation in French. LINEAR is an international magazine, which guides you every month through new litterary texts from the 19th and 20th century.

230 × 297 mm
Supervised by Harry Bloch

Plastic Animals

This is a poster made in 2015 during a workshop with Swiss designer Dafi Kühne. The aim of the week was to use letter press printing. The theme was "Collection". We decided to create a poster showing the plastic animals most kids collect.

550 × 750 mm
Supervised by Dafi Kühne, I teamed up with Mélanie Blanc

Series Maxim Vengerov

Variation of posters using elements from an existing one.

420 × 594 mm
Supervised by Violène Pont

CIO 100

This poster was created to celebrate the centenary of the Comité International Olympique in Lausanne. It was made under the supervision of Ludovic Balland.

895 × 1280 mm
Supervised by Ludovic Balland

Ganika

We were asked to merge two famous brands to create a new one, keeping the strong point of each brand. I decided to try and merge Canon and Nikon, in order to create GANIKA. Here's the result with a fictional logo, animated logo, manifesto and poster. GANIKA comes from "gaso" in Japanese, which means "pixel". Then I added the first syllable of Canon and Nikon. The whole identity is based on the pixels that create any image. In order to illustrate the brand I picked some pictures from National Geographic.

210 × 270 mm / 841 × 1189 mm
Supervised by Jonas Wandeler