sda Swiss Design Association
As an association of professionals, we provide our members with expert support. As a competent counterpart, we act as an intermediary between the interests of the profession, the economy and politics.

The members of the Swiss Design Association (sda) are not just industrial designers. Some of them work in the related fields of communication design, interior design, exhibition design, graphics, craftwork, and textile and fashion design. Together, they cultivate exchange in Switzerland’s largest association of active designers.

A look at the past …
The association was founded on 6 July 1966 under the name SID. The names of the founder members crop up in every historical review of Swiss design. Well-known figures such as Andreas Christen, Willy Guhl and Kurt Thut, to name but a few, were actively involved. It is thanks to them that designers founded an association in which they are in their element - at a time, moreover, when the word “designer” or “industrial designer” was only slowly working its way into the language.

... and at the future
In the future, the sda will have a stronger external presence as a major partner and joint organizer of competitions such as the Design Preis Schweiz or the Dyson Swiss Student Award. In other words, we take the promotion of young designers seriously and intend to be involved in policy discussions on the training of future designers at all levels. In our exchanges with European and worldwide design umbrella organizations we have seen that elsewhere, design is supported and recognized by the State – as a cultural and also an economic endeavour. We want to help the profession achieve the same recognition in Switzerland.

Felix C. Keller, President