DIA

Workshop (In Progress)

“Tension & Release”
27 students building their own generative design instruments. Imagine a synth rack for graphic design. By the end of the week they’ll have exponentially more instruments than people in the room. Every instrument playable by anyone, producing consistent results because the intelligence is in the system, not the operator. Work authored by the system builder, the operator just tests, experiments and curates.

In this workshop, students don’t learn design by learning software. They learn it by building instruments and playing them.

Build an instrument, break it to the edges, build it further. Define constraints, improvise within them, generate takes, select. Repeat with increasing complexity. By Friday the systems are sophisticated but the method never changes. Rules first. Freedom after.

This week’s work is part of Vibrations Forward, a larger ECAL research project with Joël Vacheron, Francis Baudevin, and Olympe Boutaghane examining the Vibrations magazine archives (1991–2013). Full exhibition this fall in Lausanne.

Workshop results to be published via and Substack

Ink tool made as a demo during the workshop.

Tomorrow at 17h (5pm), our creative director will give a lecture at ZHdK Zürich (Toni-Areal), wrapping up a week of working with third-year Visual Communication students on AI-assisted generative systems. .zhdk

If you’re in Zürich and want to join last minute, DM us!

We’ll be talking about DIA’s history with generative tools, how designers can engage critically with new AI technologies, and why adaptability and strong craft foundations matter now more than ever.

More soon! Including some great work from the students this week via

Here’s a small poster study built with the same methods we explored in the workshop.

🔵Coinbase | 2025 World Economic Forum🔵
➡️ dia.tv/coinbase-davos

When Coinbase took the stage at the 2025 World Economic Forum, we helped them stand alongside traditional banks while making a distinctly modern statement. Our strategy, concept, and design brought a new sense of craft and cultural energy to an environment typically defined by convention. Together with our production partner, Brand New School, we activated the design across every detail, from motion graphics and digital signage to editorial spreads, posters, and event collateral.

Typefaces:
MNKY Koko
Coinbase Sans

“Us, Me, You, Them, Here, There”
The title of the poster we created for the at this year’s Zurich Design Week. Our poster responds to the theme « TEAM UP » with a generative design application that produces limitless compositions. Inspired by flight map aesthetics, it explores the interconnection and global reality of teams today. Remote yet connected through technology. The work is presented as a large-format static poster and a one-minute VR animation.
The application offers extensive control over the system: line thickness, dot size, labels, arrow size and density, node behavior, and ambient animation. It can generate both high-resolution SVG outputs for print and dynamic video sequences, enabling infinite variations across formats. Exhibitions like this are also a space for our R&D like our platform tools.dia.tv