Sophie Wietlisbach

Information

Running my graphic and type design practice since 2016, my work focuses on editorial design, type design and illustration. After a bachelor in Visual Communication at the Bern University of Arts (HKB), I graduated with a Master in Type Design from ECAL/University of Art and Design Lausanne. I worked as teaching assistant for the Master in Type Design at ECAL from 2020 to 2022. In 2023 I received a grant by the DNP Foundation for Cultural Promotion (Tokyo, Japan) for a research project on the manufacture of type for typewriters in Switzerland and published the research results in the book ‘Impact Type. Manufacturing Type for Typewriters in Switzerland, 1941-1997’ (Triest, Zurich 2025).

Speaking French, German, Swiss German and English

Typefaces

Review Mono Regular, Cursive and Ultracondensed are released on ECAL Typefaces [—>]. The typefaces Plakat, Thesis, Advocate and Idéaliste are in development and are available for early access licences. For trials, licences or custom typefaces, don’t hesitate to contact me.

Publications & Articles

‘Caractères. La fabrication des caractères pour machines à écrire en Suisse, 1941-1997’, Triest Verlag, Zurich 2025 [—>]

‘Impact Type. Manufacturing Type for Typewriters in Switzerland, 1941-1997’, Triest Verlag, Zurich 2025 [—>]

‘Manufacturing Type for Typewriters in Switzerland’, in the ‘Bulletin of Graphic Culture Research Grants’, vol. 6, Tokyo, Japan 2025

Awards & Grants

DNP Foundation for Cultural Promotion Research Grant, Tokyo (Japan), 2023

Prix EXECAL, for the Master Thesis ‘Caractères SA, Setag, Novatype and the Police’, 2020

Best of Swiss Made 2018 (nomination), shnit Worldwide Festival, Bern, 2018

Audience Award, category animation, Festival International du film de montagne Autrans, France, 2017

Best of Interfilm 2017 (nomination), Interfilm Film Festival, Berlin, Germany, 2017

100 Beste Plakate Deutschland Schweiz Österreich, 2014

Lectures & Workshops

Lecture with Roland Früh and Anna-Lena Würth at the symposium Automatic Type Design 3, ANRT, Nancy, 2025

Lecture at ECAL/University of Art and Design Lausanne, Module Training to Research, Master of Arts HES-SO in Design, 2023

Online Studio visit, F+F Schule für Kunst und Design, Zurich, 2023

Guest for a Type Crit, Bachelor Visual Communication, HEAD, Geneva, 2023

Teaching assistant, Master in Type Design, ECAL/University of Art and Design Lausanne, 2020-2022

Lecture at ECAL/University of Art and Design Lausanne, Module Training to Research, Master of Arts HES-SO in Design, 2022

Modular type workshop, Ecole de Culture générale Fribourg, ‘Agent·es culturel·les pour des écoles créatives’, 2022

Introductory workshop to type design, with Nicolas Bernklau, ECAL/University of Art and Design Lausanne, 2021

Lecture at the Junior Research Conference 2020, Lucerne, 2020

Podiumsdiskussion, Hochschule der Künste Bern (HKB), Bern, 2020

Exhibitions

‘Plakat, Thesis, Advocate’, Musée des Beaux-Arts du Locle (MBAL), ‘Elles, de A à Z’, 10e Triennale de l’art imprimé contemporain, collective exhibition with Laia Abril, Louise Bourgeois, Parkett, Batia Suter, Billie Zangewa, 2021

‘Là-Haut’, Maison Noctua, Fribourg, collective exhibition with Martial Leiter, Simon Charrière, Laurent Willenegger, 2021

Diplômes 2020, collective exhibition, ECAL/University of Art and Design, 2020

Diplome Austellung, collective exhibition, Hochschule der Künste Bern, 2016

100 Beste Plakate Deutsch Österreich Schweiz 2014, collective exhibition, 2015

Selection of past and present clients

Archizoom, EPFL, Lausanne
Bellarena, Art Music Production, Fribourg
Institute for landscape and urban studies, ETH, Zurich
Université de Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel
Le Zoo, L’Usine, Geneva
Martial Leiter, Lausanne
Architecture Curating Practice, Brussels
Neugass Kino AG (Riffraff, Houdini & Bourbaki), Zurich
AMR Jazz Festival, Geneva
ETML, État de Vaud, Lausanne
ECAL/University of Arts and Design Lausanne
Purpur Spytt, Geneva
Atra Naturschutz, Bern
Design Fribourg, Givisiez
Fondation Martin Bodmer, Geneva
Club Alpin Suisse, section genevoise, Geneva
La Cordée, Bardonnex
Filmcoopi, Zurich
Maison Noctua, Fribourg
Festival des Combins, Verbier
La fête de la danse, Fribourg
Jazz Au Bleu, Neuchâtel

Featured

Actual Source, ‘Shoplifters Issue 10, New Type Design Volume 2’, Actual Source Books, Provo, USA, 2022

Maison Noctua, ‘Moon N°1, Là-Haut’, cahiers de la Maison Noctua, Fribourg, 2021

Journal B, ‘Ferienfilme: Swiss Made’, Bern für den Film, 2021 [—>]

Slanted, ‘Yearbook of Type 2021/22’, Slanted Publishers UG, Karlsruhe, Germany, 2021

‘Type Bulletin n°3’, ECAL/University of Art and Design Lausanne, 2020

‘Offline n°10’, ECAL/University of Art and Design Lausanne, 2020

100 Beste Plakate Deutsch Österreich Schweiz 2014 catalogue, 2015

Film Festivals (selection)

Swiss Made [—>]
Solothurner Filmtage, Switzerland, 2017
NIFFF Neuchâtel, Switzerland, 2017
Fantoche, Baden, Switzerland, 2017
Funcinema, Mar del Plata, Argentina, 2017
Shnit Playground Bern, Switzerland, 2017
Asiana AISFF, Seoul, South Korea, 2017
Festival européen du film court, Brest, France, 2017
Interfilm Berlin, Germany, 2017
Kinofilm, Manchester, UK, 2017
Festival international du film de montagne Autrans, France, 2017
Exground, Wiesbaden, Germany, 2017
Tricky Women, Vienne, Austria, 2018
FFFWien, Germany, 2018
Melbourne Comedy Festival, Australia, 2018
BISFF, Busan, South Korea, 2018
Seoul International Extreme-Short Image & Film Festival (SESIFF), South Korea, 2019
San Francisco Green film festival, USA, 2019
32e International Short Film Festival Dresden, Germany, 2020
Environmental Film Festival Australia (EFFA), 2021

Geflügelgrippe [—>]
Lehr Film Festival, Bern, Switzerland, 2015

Wolf
One Minute Film Festival, Aarau, Switzerland, 2014