While we were fortunately spared things like the double tie, Griff's hat, or dehydrated pizza, others like computer glasses are almost a reality.

By the way, the closest thing to the world from Back to the Future is the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, probably the largest consumer electronics trade show in the world. Only invited guests like industry experts, journalists and insiders are allowed to enter. Nevertheless, I'm somehow (almost) there live - thanks to social media.

The expectation for this year was clearly "connecting everything"; from watches to toothbrushes to virtual worlds. And yes, CES was all about the Internet of Things. In addition to self-driving cars and new smartphones, there were also gadgets and numerous other bizarre products and inventions at CES. I have collected a few curiosities for you.

A practical example for anyone without a green thumb: the intelligent flower pot called "Parrot Pot. It measures light, temperature, humidity and fertilizer and forwards this information to the user's smartphone. If necessary, the "Parrot Pot" even automatically supplies the contents with water. Also interesting is the unobtrusive "Netatmo Welcome" camera for the living room or bedroom, which is equipped with facial recognition and then also transmits this data immediately to an iPhone or Apple Watch. This way, you know around the clock who is staying within your own four walls. Perfect for the control freaks among us, but perhaps still a bit exaggerated. As will certainly be the case for many with the next invention, which is supposed to solve a widespread problem, bad breath. The handy gadget "Mint" from Breathometer analyzes the breath via an electrochemical cell and informs the user on an app whether only a chewing gum is needed or whether the teeth should be brushed right away.

Useful tools or a foretaste of the world of McFly & Co? That remains to be seen. But who knows, maybe some of them have the potential to become future blockbusters, because seriously, who would have thought a few years ago that a stick with a smartphone holder, a so-called selfie stick, would be a successful gadget?

My favorite gadget in this "Back to the Future" year doesn't come directly from CES, though. No, we won't see the Hooverboard on the streets. But most likely the self-lacing sneaker. Yes, you read that right. According to rumors, Nike has developed the legendary sneaker of the main character Marty McFly and will bring it to stores this year. Whether it's a marketing gag or not, the rumor is making headlines. We can't wait to see whether the sporting goods giant manages to launch the shoe by October 21, 2015. Why? Well, because that's the day Marty McFly will land in Hill Valley.

Manuel P. Nappo, Director of Studies CAS Social Media Management HWZ Hochschule für Wirtschaft Zürich. www.fh-hwz.ch/smm
 

To be clear from the outset, the WEMF does not look back to the year of publication of the first reader study. It leaves it at 10 years. The changes in behavior and profile presented at the Media Research Day relate to the last decade. At this point, we are looking back much further and presenting results from the first readership research. Veteran media experts know that the publication sheets with the readership figures appeared in green, red and blue back then. It was just as easy to get annoyed when the expert opinion was lost. After the first two study publications were limited to the conurbations, the first national readership study appeared in 1967. This heralded a new, professional planning era for the print media. In addition to the total readership figures, expressed in readers per number, week, month or quarter, various breakdowns were also published. More important than income and areas of interest were denominational affiliation, purchasing power classes and subscription type. Even a reader loyalty index was calculated.

Comparisons between the 1967 edition of LF and today's MACH are far-fetched and basically not even permissible. Nevertheless, we dare to do so in the knowledge that at least half a dozen system changes have been made since 1967 and most titles have undergone massive changes as a result of mergers and acquisitions. But there are also some that have remained as they were. Here is a little comparison to amuse you. There are 47 years of media research between the two columns, even back then under the name WEMF: readers per week, those were the days. In the meantime, completely different topics have become topical. Today, it's all about capturing the total audience of media brands. This is because newspapers and magazines have long been used not only on paper but also on very different electronic devices such as PCs, LAPs and smartphones. 20 Minuten, for example, has 574,000 20minuten.ch readers in addition to its 1,571,000 print users. And 237,000 use both sources. In collaboration with NET Metrix, WEMF has developed solutions that take account of changing media usage behavior and show the use of digital offerings in addition to print products. The results of the latest test study will be published on Media Research Day 2014.

Otto Meier

PS: In addition to the green, red and blue tables of the LF 67/68, there were also the yellow ones. They showed the double readers. Even back then!

 

Ruedi Baur wants to turn the new Institute of Design at the Zurich University of Art and Design into a mecca for international graphic design.it all began in Zurich - and this is where the cycle should come full circle. "The cycle is somehow complete," muses Ruedi Baur. Born in Paris in 1956, the dual Swiss and French citizen has been the head of the newly founded Institute of Design at the HGKZ, Zurich University of Art and Design, since March 1 of this year. Baur is one of the best-known Swiss graphic designers. His parents emigrated from the Engadin to France. However, it was not Paris, the city of art, but Zurich, the city on the Limmat, where Baur wanted to start his career. "I would have chosen Italy for architecture and Zurich for design," he looks back and begins to enthuse about the fact that graphic design from Switzerland played a leading role worldwide at the time, and Baur wants to build on this past. "That is clearly my goal. I'm not coming to Zurich to solve Zurich's problems, but to make Zurich a global center for design." The HGKZ has the capacity and opportunity to do this. And Baur also believes in himself: "At the moment, I have the strength to pull this off", to give the new design a proper
position in the public
help.
Ruedi Baur's strength is system design. He aims to develop complex visual languages in the areas of identification, orientation and information. Many of these ideas take place at the transition from the two-dimensional to the three-dimensional. One of his calling cards, "which works very well internationally", is the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Baur designed the entire reorganization of the identity there, right down to the detail of the signage for this glass building by Rogers and Piano.
Among the current projects, Baur refers to Bonn-Cologne Airport. This is also about the CD. The appearance is to become "very atypical" for an airport when comprehensive new signage is also installed here soon. "We have developed a font that includes the pictograms," he reveals and says that such a new design is now "far removed from label thinking".
Baur is also currently working on a new image for the Cité International congress center in Lyon, as well as the signage for an entire district. He is doing the same corporate design job for the newly founded School of Marketing and Design in Essen. An "outdoor scenography" is to be designed for the next film festival in Berlin.
How Ruedi Baur works can be studied in concentrated form from March 9 at the "mu.dac" design museum in Lausanne. Baur calls this traveling exhibition with ever new aspects "Work in Progress". So far, it has also been on show in Paris and Leipzig and will then travel to Montreal. These are all locations where various personalities from the Intégral Concept studio network are at work.
This network, founded by Ruedi Baur and Pippo Lionni back in 1989, does not have a predominantly commercial function, but is intended to be a network of ideas. Architects, scenographers, graphic artists and product designers work together to find a new philosophy of design. Today, Lars Müller in Baden, Studio Vinaccia in Milan and Lipsky + Rollet in Paris are all involved in this theoretical and educational exchange. "There is no obligation to work together. Everything is based on desire," explains Ruedi Baur. However, anyone who works with Intégral may also appear in public under this name.
Anyone studying Ruedi Baur's biography will notice that, in addition to his practical work, pedagogy has always played an important role. Of the 18 years that the designer has worked at schools to date, seven have been at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts in Lyon. Since 1995, he has been a professor at the Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig, where he also served as rector for four years and founded the Institute for Interdisciplinary Design in 1999. A guest professorship in Offenbach was also important to him.
Teaching will no longer be the focus of his work in Zurich. Baur mainly wants to organize new research and supervise dissertations.
"Zurich is not an easy place," he points out. In this place, where the concentration of designers is very high, he felt very much under surveillance. "I was a bit afraid of Zurich. Everything you do here is analyzed by other designers." However, Baur, whose new job in Zurich also means he can spend more time with his family, who have lived here for some time, is convinced that he now has enough self-confidence to tackle these new challenges.
The future head of the institute gets his strength from enjoying various forms of culture. However, he can also "regenerate" very well by climbing mountains. "I'm not an extreme mountaineer. But I can feel the mountain and am therefore very often there in the Alps."
At the new Institute of Design, Ruedi Baur wants to build on the days when Swiss graphics played a leading role worldwide.

Andreas Panzeri