Travel Report: Exploring Cute Swiss Design

9 Oct 2007 Category: Features, Graphics, Products, Worldwide

Travel Report: Exploring Cute Swiss Design

Oh my, looks like this Swiss postman is carried by a cheerful crowd that eagerly awaits the mail! From the stamp edition in support of the UN's activities. © Die Post

In Japan, we associate Switzerland usually with Heidi, Girl of the Alps, majestic mountain ranges, fabulous cheese and internationally renowned designers. However, since recently moving from Japan to Switzerland, I have been looking at the design of commonplace items that the Swiss get to see every day – and discovered how cute and colourful even the most ordinary objects are! Today, seen through the eyes of a Japanese, PingMag introduces a variety of unique designs from Switzerland…

Written by Hazuki Sekine
Translated by Natsumi Yamane

1. Banknotes

When you travel abroad, the first thing you do is, correct, exchanging money. So, naturally, the design of the banknotes in a foreign country would be the first thing to catch your attention, of course. Currently, there are six denominations of banknotes in circulation in Switzerland and most striking are their colour schemes! In Japan, we are used to our Japanese banknotes in subdued colours. So, for us, these brightly-coloured Swiss notes almost seem like works of art! Each note carries a portrait of a notable person from Switzerland, including famous architect Le Corbusier. Another unusual feature would be their special vertical design, issued between 1995 and 1998. Needless to say that they incorporate various modern technologies to prevent counterfeiting…

The unique Swiss notes with vertical designs: Incidentally, Le Corbusier, whose exhibition was held at Mori Art Museum in Tokyo earlier this year, is featured on the yellow note on the far left.

2. Passports

This Swiss passport design featuring a small, stylish white cross on a bright red background was just introduced in 2003. If you look closely, you will see numerous Swiss crosses embossed on the front. But wait for the inside pages: With great attention to detail, each page features a different design. Also, nowadays, the Swiss flag is frequently used for branding, for example as logo for Swatch and the Swiss Military. But this passport has obviously made the most of the flag’s attractive design.

On the left, the white Swiss cross functions as an accent on the bright red passport. On the right, various stylish designs of the inside pages.

3. Stamps

Just as we see a wide variety of commemorative and character stamps in Japan, there are many types of stamps in Switzerland: These ones featuring postmen as motifs were designed to show Swiss Post’s support for the activities of United Nations and its specialised agency UPU [Universal Postal Union], that helps the victims of natural disasters such as tsunamis and earthquakes. The set below was designed by Victoria Leonard on the theme of “Happiness,” in which the hearts represent “love,” the stars, “wish” and the flowers symbolise “success.” As these stamps are available from all Swiss post offices, don’t forget to send postcards to your friends with these lovely stamps if you happen to visit this country.

The flying postman again! This stamp set carries the United Nations mark at the bottom right corner, and the mark for UPU on its bottom left corner. © Die Post

A set of stamps designed by Victoria Leonard, available at every Swiss post office: As there are four national languages in Switzerland, stamps use the neutral “Helvetia,” which means Switzerland in Latin and is also the female personification of Switzerland. © Die Post

4. Telephone Booths

As mobile phones have become so widespread in Japan, the number of payphones is decreasing. However, payphones are still widely in use in Switzerland: These ubiquitous telephone booths are painted in red, blue and white – the key colours of the national telecommunications company “Swisscom” – and they can easily be spotted from afar. Most of these payphones have keyboards, some even accept credit cards, and they offer improved services such as e-mail and telephone number directories.


A spaceship terminal? Swisscom’s futuristic looking public payphones…

…and nicely designed telephone booth. Even the shape of the handle is cool!

5. Paper Bags at Markets

As common all over Europe, markets are held several times a week. At a Swiss one, I discovered that the bags used at vegetable and fruits stands are quite different from the plastic bags we are used to seeing in Japan! The fruit bag on the left has a unique shape: It’s folded at the middle of the illustration, and when it’s held from underneath, it’s designed to prevent even grapes and cherries from getting squashed. Of course, such paper packaging is also environmentally friendly.


A fruit bag that is actually a bit similar to the crepe and popcorn wrappers used in Japan.

Another recyclable paper bag from a different fruit stand.

6. Stickers from Post Offices

Icons for everybody to understand, regardless of his or her mother tongue: “Fragile” and “Handle with Care” stickers from post offices are all designed in red and black over a white background, and the letters are printed in simple fonts too. That’s because Switzerland has four official languages, including German, French, Italian and Romansch, and official documents such as passports and banknotes are written in two or more languages.

”Fragile” and “Handle with Care” stickers. The text is much smaller compared to such stickers used in Japan.

Appendix: Scales at Supermarkets

Lastly, an interesting difference to Japan: In Japanese supermarkets, you buy fruits and vegetables usually per item regardless of its size and weight. However, supermarkets all over Europe offer scales at the fruit and vegetable section, where you weigh as much as you need and push a few buttons to get the price. We were quite impressed by the looks of these Swiss types!

High-tech looking scales found at a Swiss supermarket.

I hope you enjoyed the designs from everyday Swiss life we found so appealing to Japanese!

79 Comments

  1. omg!! what a cute design!! i specially love the passport!!

    Posted by: noa & ash on October 9th, 2007 at 8:59 pm

  2. Now that is clever design! I LOVE when design is embraced and introduced to areas where they would be overlooked. The vertical money…the passport…i’m beyond jealous.

    Posted by: dendoo on October 9th, 2007 at 9:21 pm

  3. I live in Holland and the things you show here are quite simular to the products we have here. And it’s nice to see that Japanese people love the european style so much. Like the brown paper bags that we consider as bad old fashioned design. We, here in Europe, love the Japanese style. Like Harajuku, Japanese zakkastuff and bento. I think Pingmag is the best design source for Japanese contemporary culture: keep up the good work!
    The Swiss passport is great though!I like the stamps too!

    Posted by: Keet on October 9th, 2007 at 9:45 pm

  4. i want that swiss passport! beautiful.

    Posted by: may on October 9th, 2007 at 10:31 pm

  5. The vertical banknotes are amazing.
    Try to pull that in a country like mine, with this kind of national logo:

    http://www.publicinfo.ro/pagini/manual-identitate-vizuala.php

    Posted by: Magazine online on October 9th, 2007 at 11:01 pm

  6. thanks for this wonderful post - i live in switzerland and unfortunately it is all too easy to not notice the beauty in familiar every day objects. i will try and keep my eyes open a little wider from now on!

    Posted by: barbara on October 9th, 2007 at 11:43 pm

  7. [...] Exploring Cute Swiss Design [...]

    Posted by: alceste’s blog » Blog Archive » About Swiss Design as seen by Japanese on October 10th, 2007 at 12:40 am

  8. I don’t think I’ve ever seen banknotes that vary by size depending on denomination. I think those are even more beautiful than Dutch currency!

    Posted by: Clay on October 10th, 2007 at 2:59 am

  9. The vertical banknotes and passport completely blow their U.S. equivalents right out of the water. Anyone see that new U.S. $5 lately? Here’s an image of it: http://www.designverb.com/wp-content/images/2007/09/new.5.dollar.bil.purple.jpg

    I nearly gagged.

    Posted by: Kelly on October 10th, 2007 at 4:30 am

  10. Our canadian passport look so boring compare to this one! ;)

    Posted by: Roxana on October 10th, 2007 at 10:44 am

  11. Wow, I love the vertical banknotes! Plus all the bright colors. =) My county uses plastic $5 bills with a little transparent bit on them and I thought that was pretty cool but the Swiss really are amazing! But the passports have to be the best! Who knew passports could be so fun and colourful! ^-^

    Oh if anyone wants to see the polymer $5 note..
    http://www.webbiz2u.com/NOTES/newRM5a.jpg

    Posted by: razori on October 10th, 2007 at 2:29 pm

  12. [...] PingMag - The Tokyo-based magazine about “Design and Making Things” » Archive » Travel Report:… [...]

    Posted by: renaissance chambara | Ged Carroll » Blog Archive » Links for 2007-10-09 [del.icio.us] on October 10th, 2007 at 8:03 pm

  13. [...] Schweizer Design hat es PingMag angetan. Im aktuellen Bericht wird unter anderem ein Blick auf Schweizer Banknoten, den Pass mit dem roten Kreuz und das [...]

    Posted by: Schweizer Design einmalig at taxipluto on October 10th, 2007 at 8:08 pm

  14. The 1000 CHF banknote is missing! It’s even longer. Well we don’t see it too often anyway…

    Posted by: jim on October 10th, 2007 at 11:33 pm

  15. The Swiss passport is incredibly elegant! I wish my Canadian one was half as decent. Swiss design never ceases to amaze me!

    Posted by: Jenny on October 11th, 2007 at 12:00 am

  16. nice ones.

    Posted by: akrok on October 11th, 2007 at 5:19 am

  17. It’s funny: Living in Switzerland, I always considered the scale you mentionend as really bad design. The numbers are not aligned from 1 to 10, 11 to 20 and so on. It’s 1 to 8, 9 to 16 and so on. So every time I’m looking for the right number and wonder who might have inventioned that system.

    Posted by: Lucky Luke on October 11th, 2007 at 6:29 am

  18. I am with Lucky Luke, though ingenious the scale has some flows!
    Always loved the Swiss Money. It is much nicer and easier to tell apart then the US $

    And I am a proud owner of those “cute” passports!

    Posted by: SabineM on October 11th, 2007 at 10:46 am

  19. wonderful design. very clean and like fresh water and mountain air. is helevetica from switzerland too? looks like land of fonts.

    Posted by: minako on October 11th, 2007 at 3:56 pm

  20. [...] the eyes of a Japanese, PingMag introduces a variety of unique designs from Switzerland…” > Ver artículo completo [...]

    Posted by: Elisava Escuela Superior de Diseño - Postgrado en Diseño y Dirección de Arte » Travel Report: Exploring Cute Swiss Design on October 11th, 2007 at 4:06 pm

  21. I reacted to this article with a deep sense of neutrality.

    Posted by: Cousin of Ham on October 11th, 2007 at 6:08 pm

  22. I am a Swiss currently living in Japan and working as a designer. It is interesting to me how the Japanese see the designs we have in Switzerland. I can really pull from both cultures on new designs. It is really exciting. Oh gotta go, some more Swiss ingenuity is asked for at the job today…hurries out the door

    Posted by: Levantulee on October 16th, 2007 at 9:17 am

  23. Please define ‘cute’….
    cuz I don’t see any ‘cuteness’ on these designs. Well probably the stamp, but I didn’t find em cute enough.

    I would say the passport looks bright and proud as it displays the symbol and colour of the nation’s identity.

    Posted by: Big Dave on October 16th, 2007 at 11:02 am

  24. So much of it makes use of bright colours. Is there a reason for this? Is Switzerland somewhat gray otherwise (like much of urban areas in the UK)? Regardless, I really like the passport, very good use of the national flag/logo.

    Posted by: miNGLED on October 21st, 2007 at 12:20 am

  25. yup, the 1000 note is missing… if memory serves, its a pretty purple…

    Posted by: ~d~ on October 24th, 2007 at 8:05 pm

  26. The complete set of Swiss bank notes may be found under
    http://www.snb.ch/de/iabout/cash/current/design/id/cashcurrentdesign_1000

    Posted by: Rene on October 28th, 2007 at 5:50 am

  27. Didn’t come through correctly, its http://www.snb.ch/de/iabout/cash/current/design/id/cashUNDERSCOREcurrentUNDERSCOREdesignUNDERSCORE1000

    Posted by: Rene on October 28th, 2007 at 6:00 am

  28. Чувство юмора не купишь, да и не продашь…
    Но на нем можно ЗАРАБОТАТЬ!!!!!! Читай здесь

    Posted by: Angelika on October 30th, 2007 at 10:22 pm

  29. Proud to be Swiss! ;-)

    Posted by: Valentin on December 19th, 2007 at 2:30 pm

  30. For those who’ve never seen Australian currency, we’ve had polymer notes for years in bright colours. No mistaking what’s in your hand (unlike in the US yikes!). We still haven’t managed to get rid of the Queen of England though, who still adorns the $5 note…
    Have a look http://www.aussie-info.com/tourist/notes.jpg

    Posted by: Georgia on February 14th, 2008 at 3:13 pm

  31. [...] Clicca per leggere. [...]

    Posted by: Exploring Cute Swiss Design « Starving Moon on April 8th, 2008 at 6:26 am

  32. hi folks!

    Great portrait, thank you. i got this cute passport a couple of years ago :) and i really like it. I think that the banknotes will change quite soon. The new design is also coulorfull, but weird as well! ;)

    Posted by: senad on June 5th, 2008 at 5:59 pm

  33. The vertical banknotes are amazing.
    They’re very good protected.

    Posted by: vladi on September 10th, 2009 at 10:52 pm

  34. [...] ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Source: pingmag.jp [...]

    Posted by: Kastormag – Home » Graphique:: Le Passport Swiss on February 25th, 2010 at 10:06 pm

  35. great design! passport looks fantastic - very international style. Our Australian banknotes change sizes according to denomination and are also different colours but these are still better! they’re vertical!

    Posted by: Hamletjames on May 25th, 2010 at 12:59 am

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