Koban, MiriamMiriamKoban2025-02-032025-02-032024-09-06https://doi.org/10.24451/dspace/11201https://arbor.bfh.ch/handle/arbor/44310The development of a graphic design scene grounded in youth culture in the city of Lucerne is the focus of this paper. In the early 1980s, youth protests spread across the major cities of Switzerland. In Zurich, Bern, or Geneva, young people were demanding “Freiräume” (autonomous spaces) where they could express their alternative culture – embracing their music, fashion, creativity, art, and freedom. They stood in stark contrast to the bourgeois values of the predominant culture and sought non-commercial spaces free from the authorities’ control to foster their own. These socio-cultural upheavals led to an explosive increase in autonomous cultural venues, which provided new working environments and opportunities for visual designers. Many of the graphic designers who developed flyers, posters, or magazines for the protests continued designing for subcultural scenes. They created a new visual language which reflected their values and also established a new professional identity that diverged from the commercial orientation of graphic design. This development fundamentally changed the professional field of design in Switzerland. Beyond major cities, these socio-cultural changes were also taking place. How did this shift in graphic design discourse manifest in the geographical periphery? And what was the local youth movement’s role in it? The role of the periphery is yet to be included in Swiss graphic design history, and this paper therefore aims to claim its place in the main narrative. Using the example of Lucerne, this paper illustrates how the youth movement fostered a vibrant alternative cultural scene around the former Sedel prison, which was provided by the authorities in 1981. The youth movement repurposed the prison as rehearsal rooms, studios, and concert venues, with graphic designers playing a significant role in this development.enD204conference_item