Creative Switzerland

Add a very sunny day in London to a lot of creativity: this was the recipe for a truly successful Swiss Creative Day on Monday 23 July in the Red Zone. The Swiss are creative and they were eager to prove it to London.

Among the many activities in the Red Zone and its surroundings yesterday was the Zürich Creative Day, presented by the City and Council of Zürich. A series of workshops on Swiss creativity gave a better insight into what the Swiss have developed in the fields of gaming and media design. Showcased were the Disney Research Lab as well as ETTER STUDIO, who presented a concept of a game based on nuclear science. Bitforge, the game design studio, which designed the new "Swiss Games" app for Presence Switzerland, was also present at Zürich Creative Day.

The Victorinox booth was the place where visitors could use their own creativity and design their own custom-made Swiss knives for free. Some pre-set designs included Inkie’s sketches.
Two Swiss urban artists, the brothers Michael and Tobias Senn, members of the Zürich artist group One Truth, were busy preparing and designing Switzerland-shaped cheese platters and mini-canvases with graffiti-style designs. Mickey was even among the favourite graffiti. No less than 130 mini artworks were created and offered to the public, who flocked to this very special stall. After a brief rest, it was on to the main event.

The two One Truth brothers started a battle against two famous UK street-artists: Inkie and Chu. The challenge took place in two parts: first, a 45-minute “battle” to choose the best Swiss and the best UK artist from the four contestants. The sets of Franco-Swiss DJ Gilles Peterson gave a very special feel to the final which decided the winner of the whole contest. In the end Bristol artist Inkie won. Let's just hope now that this Swiss defeat is not a bad omen for the Olympics.

Click here for pictures of the Swiss Creative Day and Zürich Creative Day.