"The University of Art and Design Lausanne is on a par with similar institutions in Paris, New York or Amsterdam. According to a recent book, 15% of the top designers in the world today have close or distant links with the ECAL."

What has turned the ECAL into a school of art and design of global repute?

"I think it's because we've implemented a very clear vision that we've been working on for ten years. Today, our students are on a par with their counterparts from schools in London, Paris, Amsterdam or New York. In a brand new book listing the hundred most important designers across the world ("&Fork", Phaidon Press, 2007), 15 have links with the ECAL, be it as professor, guest lecturer or student. This represents 15% of the top designers in the world today!"

"From the day I arrived, I wanted to turn the ECAL into an institution of regional, national and international calibre. To do that, you need good staff and good students. I have the advantage of being an insider who has made numerous close contacts throughout the world during the course of my artistic career. This has helped us to attract to Lausanne leading experts in design, photography and the applied arts by offering them attractive conditions and a warm welcome in a very pleasant region. We have slowly but surely developed a local hotbed of quality art with links around the entire globe, which has turned Lausanne into a city that counts in the international design world."

What can the ECAL offer companies established in the region?

"We have several collaboration programmes in the field of design or communication with companies like Nespresso and Kudelski, and also projects with some of the big names in watchmaking. We are capable of taking on various industrial assignments… I dream of the day when we'll be able to have a chair funded by industry! It hardly needs adding that we generate recruitment opportunities for companies in the region. What's more, we've created synergies with other schools in the region, holding joint design courses with EPFL students for example. Right now we're also setting up a large, dedicated laboratory for joint projects with the EPFL to make the link between design and technology."
 
With your career, you could have settled in Paris, New York or Tokyo. What made you choose Lausanne?

"I have travelled extensively during my life, and continue to do so, but I am from Vaud originally and still very attached to this region. I could have settled somewhere else, but I like Lausanne a lot, and I think the whole region has amazing potential. It's a unique spot within Europe, offering a great quality of life, security, proximity to nature and at the same time fast connections with European and world capitals. For students, lecturers or company managers who come from outside, it's a dream location."