Robert Lzicar

Professor at Bern Academy of the Arts HKB

Bern, Berne, Switzerland

About

Robert Lzicar is a designer and professor. At the Bern Academy of the Arts HKB, he teaches design history, directs the Master of Arts in Design, and coordinates the research field “Design History” at the Institute of Design Research. In his academic career, Robert Lzicar earned an MA in Research on the Arts at the University of Bern and a CAS qualification programme for young researchers at Swiss art universities. As an undergraduate, he studied Information/Medien (Diplom FH) at the Hochschule für Gestaltung Schwäbisch Gmünd and Visuelle Kommunikation at the Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst Zürich (today Zürcher Hochschule der Künste). As a designer, Robert Lzicar was a partner in the design studio STVG. Before that, he worked for WBG AG für Visuelle Kommunikation (in the competition for the ninth series of Swiss banknotes), Trix Barmettler, and Miriam Bossard, as well as Designalltag Zürich – Ruedi Rüegg. At the Institute of Technology in Architecture at ETH Zurich, he was responsible for communication at the Chair of Building Technology. Robert Lzicar researches cultural and creative industries, design-led innovation, and historical issues and historiography in the fields of graphic design and visual culture. He organized the symposia “It Wasn’t Written” (with Julia Meer, MoMA, New York, 2018), “Mapping Graphic Design History in Switzerland” (HKB, 2014) and is co-editor of the publication of the same name (Triest Verlag, 2016). He was co-coordinator of the SNSF Sinergia research project “Swiss Graphic Design and Typography Revisited” (2016–2020) and is co-editor of the resulting publication “Swiss Graphic Design Histories” (Scheidegger & Spiess, 2021).

Experience

  • Member Board of Trustees at Berner Design Stiftung
    Jan 2023 - Present · 3 yrs 6 mos

  • Bern University of the Arts | Hochschule der Künste Bern (15 yrs 10 mos)
    • Coordinator of Research Field “Design History”
      Jan 2018 - Present · 8 yrs 6 mos

    • Professor
      Feb 2015 - Present · 11 yrs 5 mos

    • Head of MA Design
      Feb 2015 - Present · 11 yrs 5 mos

  • Partner at STVG - Mahrer, Lzicar
    2006 - Apr 2021 · 15 yrs 4 mos

  • Visiting Lecturer, School of Art and Design at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts
    Apr 2013 - Jun 2015 · 2 yrs 3 mos

  • Scientific Assistant, Chair of Building Systems at ETH Zürich
    Dec 2006 - Nov 2012 · 6 yrs