The Swiss Style Now exhibition aims to upturn clichés of Switzerland’s design identity. Bringing together over 120 works by assorted generations of graphic designers in Switzerland, the show features both the modernism the public will expect, and plenty more it won’t. Split into two sections, contemporary and classic, this is a comprehensive cross-section of the country’s graphics culture.

“What people think is classic Swiss design, actually isn’t,” says Alexander Tochilovsky, one of the curators. “There’s so much more nuance and variety, and I think we tend to bracket things in a simplistic way. Joseph Müller-Brockmann is the name most people associate with Swiss design, and he deserves a lot of credit, but he’s by far not the only practitioner.”

“I think what most people have in their minds when they think of Swiss design is this 60s aesthetic with a minimalistic use of grid and type,” says Xavier Erni, another of the curators for the show. “There was a motto that individual emotion shouldn’t be a part of the design. Now, it’s much more diverse, personal, lively and playful. But you can still see the modernist legacy. That’s never really disappeared.”

Here, Alexander and Xavier together with co-curators Erich Brechbül and Noel Leu have chosen seven themes they’ve spotted across the exhibition and the designers demonstrating them, in turn representing the core pillars of contemporary Swiss design.