Born in Sweden and educated at the Graphic Institute in Stockholm, Lars Wallentin moved in 1964 to Switzerland to the Nestlé Headquarters where he was responsible, during almost 40 years, for the development of creative design solutions for strategic brands such as Nestlé, Nescafé, Maggi, Buitoni, Nesquik and KitKat. He became a reference for many young marketing people as he was teaching design, communication and packaging around the world.

Lars Wallentin, a true European, speaking several of its languages, is an avid jazz-fan, former table tennis champion and an amateur photographer. He now spends his life writing about design and packaging and consulting various consumer goods companies. He is furthermore an appreciated speaker on package design and sits in several design juries. His device, which clearly comes through in his teaching, can be summarized in the three words: simplify, surprise and synergize.

Packaging Sense

Since 1975, Charles Morgan has designed around 1800 different works of art and has exhibited his kinetic machines around the world. His passion for materials and color is infinite.

Morgan-art

Kym Staiff’s versatility and eclectic nature provides a resource for a plethora of subjects. He insists that the creative process is not just a professional attitude but is a responsibility of the way you live it. It doesn’t take long to realize that Kym Staiff is a man of many passions. He was approached by Art Centre Europe, the short-lived Swiss branch of the famous Pasadena Design School. Being a practicing professional designer and being exposed to the institutional arena of graphic, industrial and transportation design, he grew equipped with skills in many areas allowing him to create courses and equally fill in for other international instructors unable to fulfill the fourteen week commitment. This quickly earned him the nickname of Mister Mastic–“Putty filler.”

After his university studies, and working the graphic art circuit from Melbourne to Adelaide, he decided to take a different route to ‘enlightenment’. He sailed the Pacific seas on a 125 year old gaff-rig ketch known as the Klaraburg, experienced life in Texas, worked in a bar in London, discovered Paris and then came across to Lausanne. Now he teaches at the Athenaeum. It is a challenge that he welcomes and that he has now been doing for over ten years.

He refuses the label of artist, illustrator or designer and says instead that he just uses creativity in everything he does. He is served by a wild imagination, ‘the continual strive to master paradox,’ a taste for freedom, a boat on the lake and a loving family.

After the School of Applied Arts and apprenticeship, Patrick was hired by the illustrator Etienne Delessert. He worked on cartoons projects for advertising campaigns, successful TV spots and the publishing world. For 2 years, they worked on the movie Supersaxo surrounded by 30 people. After leaving Etienne, he started to work at home and illustrated children books and more than 500 stamps for African and Arabic countries. In 1987, Patrick met his future partner and together they started a graphic design agency. They have worked on the branding for big international brands for more than 25 years.

ARD Switzerland