The F+F School was founded in Zurich in 1971 and has since played a pioneering role in Swiss art education. The school experimented early on with performance, video and the new media and became increasingly well-established as a professional educational venue for art and design.

Today, the F+F School of Art and Design is supported by a foundation co-founded by the City of Zurich. About 220 full-time students currently attend the school, which receives a subsidy from the city of Zurich. F+F is a member of the Swiss Association of Schools of Art and Design.

Apart from the 3-year diploma education in art studies, photography, graphic design and film studies, the F+F School offers a preliminary course in design (full-time or in tandem with work) and a vocational course in design. To complete the picture, there is a comprehensive program of advanced study courses. Art studies at F+F have the status of a nationally recognized degree in higher professional qualification (Art Diploma).

The teaching team at F+F includes well-known Swiss and international personalities from the worlds of fine art, photography, film,  and graphic and fashon design. One of the main traits of F+F is its close ties to the art and design scene. Workshops, presentations and lectures given by leading Swiss and international guest speakers make the F+F School a pivotal point of the young art and design scene and attract attention far beyond the confines of the school.

As an autonomous school, F+F advocates an open-minded approach to art and design and cultivates a spirit of partnership between faculty and students. Thanks to the small size of the school, students can be sure of receiving intensive and individual supervision.

The teaching language is German. A good proficiency in German is highly recommended.

Free art – thanks to open art studies. This study course supports you in realising your own independent projects, which speak a quite unique (your!) artistic language. The course shows you how you can convey that resultant and unmistakable work into the art system.
 
The F+F Schule für Kunst und Design (F+F School of Art and Design) has redefined its Studiengang Kunst HF (Art studies HF) to offer great freedom throughout its three-year full time programme – in artistic as well as personal terms. The study period can, to a large degree, be self-organised, the F+F studios are open round the clock and are also available at the weekend.
 
A simple, open-design course structure enables a straightforward immersion in art practice throughout the entire study period. The development of an independent artistic language and the possibility to take part in the current art discourse are of top priority. An uncomplicated exchange with other students helps in identifying one’s own strengths as well as build up a personal network. Internships in the art scene, as well as the possibility of an exchange semester to attend a European art academy, offer an additional, outside perspective on one’s own activity and work.
 
Only two fixed days per week for seminars and mentorship, one or two semester projects, one work presentation per semester and the attendance of in-depth seminars are compulsory. Thus, projects are developed together with specially invited people from the art world. In turn, the seminars offer a form of collaboration, which supports the contemplation and development of a narrative language geared towards one’s own artistic work. Furthermore, during the consulting and mentoring days, a core team of art, theory and mediation will discuss your own works and strategies – either in individual meetings or group discussions.

The manageable size and «short path» between students and school directorship stands for the open culture which has always been the rule at F+F. This also includes participation in the design of the study course as well as individual self-organisation. Nothing stands in the way of artistic self-determination: neither a lack of maturity nor tedious bureaucracy and certainly not a superfluous points system.
 
Admission Requirements
A minimum age of 18. Completion of a secondary level education (three to four years of basic vocational education with school-leaving qualification certificates). The educational background does not have to be relevant or discipline-specific. Applicants without secondary education qualifications (sur dossier) can be admitted upon evidence of outstanding creative abilities. 
 
Admission Procedures
You will be invited to a personal interview. The prerequisite for this is that you are aware of a specific wish to study and that you bring along with you, works, projects or documentation of your previous artistic attempts and extra-artistic activities. Admission, intermediate exams and the final diploma qualification itself, is oriented toward specific artistic matters and not written work. The examination fees are 150 Swiss Francs.
 
Duration and Beginning of Course
The study course begins each August and comprises 5,400 study hours divided over six semesters. Relevant professional experience and previous education may be taken into account regarding the study period.
 
Fees
The course has been state approved since 1998 and is subsidised. Fees for those with residence in Switzerland or Liechtenstein recognised by national civil law: CHF 5 400 (Swiss Francs) per semester (CHF 900 per month). Fees for those without residence in Switzerland or Liechtenstein: CHF 10 400 per semester (CHF 1 733 per month). This includes individual use of the school infrastructure (including a studio workplace) outside of teaching hours. It excludes, however, personal utensils, equipment and materials.
 
Education Levels
Tertiary Levels, Higher Technical College, Advanced Federal Diploma of Higher Education.
 
Diploma
Swiss state-recognised Advanced Federal Diploma of Higher Education in Fine Arts (dipl. Gestalterin HF Bildende Kunst/dipl. Gestalter HF Bildende Kunst).
 
Professional Perspectives
Artists capable of materialising independent artistic works and projects. The professional environment is the broadly diversified, local and global art scene, which comprises self-commissioned artistic activity as well as project developments in the context of private or public commissions. Activities in the fields of visual design, photography and video/film, in information and entertainment media operations or in culture and mediation work outside of the classical art scene are just as conceivable and worth striving for.

F+F's Foundation Course (Gestalterischer Vorkurs/Propädeutikum) offers interested young people with creative talent the opportunity to become acquainted with various aspects of creative occupations.

Start of Studies: mid August
Education: 9 months, full time

Graphic design’s goal is to translate diverse content into visual communication. Within the visual design curriculum you learn, concisely and independently, to convey your intended objectives via image and typography.
 
In Visual Design HF (Studiengang Visuelle Gestaltung HF) you will acquire all the competencies from sketch to conception to realization in order to be able to carry out graphic projects in a practical and present-day manner. In addition you will possess capabilities in communication and planning, as well as an expert proficiency to develop, execute and self-confidently represent your graphic solutions.
 
The work on viable concepts is hereby just as central as the interlinking of analog and digital media and tools.
 
Well-grounded layout techniques, a pleasure in experimentation and broad expertise constitute the basis for your conscious design vocabulary. Part of which is your reflection on the design process and on trying out different methods of finding images.
 
Projects that are carried out for clients just as much as those involving interdisciplinary teamwork guarantee a practice-oriented preparation for your professional life. Our instructors represent a variety of design positions and in addition offer you worthwhile networking possibilities.
 
In order to visualize the communicative intentions of your clients in a differentiated and consciously responsible way, you learn to enter into a dialogue with the cultural and social milieu as well as with current technologies and the great variety of specific professional experts.
 
The first year of the six-semester Visual Design advanced education curriculum gives students the basis for approaching more complex graphic tasks, such as techniques of image generation, drawing, photography, animation and sampling, a foundation in typography, layout and screen design as well as presentation and a knowledge of production techniques. The main course is increasingly project-oriented; the diploma semester is characterized by your self-conceived final project. Furthermore the courses provide you with the theoretical know-how specific to their subject and sensitizes you to questions on culture and society.
 
The design curriculum addresses communicative people who go through life with open eyes and want to co-design their world.
 
Beginning of course and duration
The study course begins each August and comprises 5,400 study hours divided into six semesters. Relevant professional experience and previous education may be taken into account for these studies.

Diploma
Swiss state-recognized designer HF, communication designer HF with specialization in Visual Design

Professional Perspectives
Lines of work in graphic design ateliers, in communication or advertising agencies, in the communication departments of companies or institutions. Freelance activity.


 

The Graphic Arts vocational training programme (Fachklasse Grafik EFZ) offers the ideal opportunity to prepare for a career as a graphic designer and earn a Federal VET Certificate (Eidgenössisches Fähigkeitszeugnis) in a professional, school-based environment.

Start of School: mid August
Education: 4 years, full time

Fashion is always in fashion! In Fashion Design HF (Studiengang Modedesign HF) you design and produce fashion within a range of social trends and cultural pluralism. The study of clothes design HF teaches you the competence you need to practice this fascinating and creative profession.

With the courses in fashion design HF* you will be given a sound artisanal, technical and creative foundation for your future career as a fashion designer. This practice-oriented education promotes conceptual thinking and creative production as well as unearths your aptitudes, trends and stylist tendencies at an early stage, allowing your know-how of independent and original work to evolve. The course material takes account of the newest developments within fashion, the business economy and society, but also fosters an awareness of cultural and historical contexts.

From the design, to making the patterns, and up to the final fabrication, you will acquire all the necessary expertise to implement your own independent projects in tune with the times. The appropriate use of the textiles, the know-how of modern technologies and the understanding of related branches are further competencies that you will learn during your studies.

As a fashion designer you also need an aptitude for communication and planning. You can thus reflect on how to represent your ideas and document your work professionally. Basic knowledge of financial transactions and of the laws behind commercial conditions that enable you later to manage an independent business will then round out your education.

This six-semester course provides you with a technological and handcrafted basis—as well as a fundamental understanding—of the broad field of fashion design. During your studies and within the context of projects, you have the opportunity to fabricate individual creations but also projects of an increasing degree of complexity. In the diploma semester, it is the creation of your own collection that stands at the center of attention, where it will be presented in a decidedly professional way.

The instructors in the fashion design course represent a variety of creative positions. They offer you the possibility of valuable networking within the lively and constantly changing fashion scene.

Start of School: mid August
Education: 3 years, full time

There are few mediums that have been subject to as much constant change as photography in its almost two hundred years existence. In our practice-oriented study courses in Photography HF (Studiengang Fotografie HF) you, in a dialogue with experts and your fellow colleagues, will develop the basis for your own pictorial style. By means of an active engagement with current issues as well as the history of photography, you will learn to position yourself within the contemporary fields of application.

Your competencies will reach from the conception and implementation of projects and commissions up to the well-conceived use of still and moving pictures in the most varied of contexts. You will operate in a professional field in which medial boundary lines are noticeably vanishing.

Along with practical proficiency, the curriculum will provide you with specialized theoretical knowledge. Events that go beyond your studies raise cultural and aesthetic questions that require you to give your personal response. Well-known personalities will be regularly invited to come to presentations and workshops. During your student training you will be confronted with many possibilities and working methods for design achievement; thanks to practice-orientation you will quickly learn to recognize your individual preferences and to discover where your personal interest lies.
 
The full-time curriculum lasts six semesters. In the first year the focus is on analog and digital production processes as well as lighting, studio photography and image editing.
 
Through experimentation with different techniques and materials, you will continually expand your set of design tools. Your works will arise from your applied context as well as in accordance with an artistic position. Exhibitions and project presentations will give you the opportunity to present your work publicly. The diploma semester is characterized by a self-conceived final project.
 
The Photography HF curriculum is suitable for those who bring a contemporary context with them as backup to their attentive interest in engaging with the medium of photography. Being open and prepared to work independently are the appropriate crucial prerequisites.
 
Start of School: mid August
Education: 3 years, full time

The Module-Based Preparatory Programme (Berufsbegleitender Vorkurs im Modulsystem) is ideal for working persons who want sound basic training in art and design.

Depending on the number of courses attended at one time, the customised F+F preparatory programme takes between 18 and 30 months to complete. Students can begin their studies at the start of any quarter. On average, students take one or two course modules per quarter. The modules can be separately booked, making it possible to gear the content as well as the timeframe of the training to one's own occupational situation. The Module-Based Preparatory Programme is concluded with an individual project, a written paper and a public presentation.

Start of Studies: quarterly
Education: 1.5–2 years, part time

You have pictures in your head? Get them moving! As a creative personality with a fine sense for animated images, you will find at our school a matching educational framework.
 
The extra occupational F+F Film HF curriculum (Studiengang Film HF) will teach you all the important film and video competency that empowers you to carry on in the complex film business.
 
Not every film must have a happy end, but every filmmaker should have a more than happy approach to his/her subject. During the 6 to 8 semester course of studies, you will acquire know-how in directing and in the technologies of camera, lighting and sound. You will learn the rules for writing scripts and directing them; you will cut your own films and work out inspiring market strategies for your projects.
 
We rely on teamwork, learn-by-doing and a hands-on approach. Our manageably-sized classes allow us to react individually to the interests and competencies of our students. Already in the first year you will conceive and carry out your first project. Parallel to this our seminars will provide important insight into research, writing and interview techniques. You will learn the professional handling of camera, microphone and light as well as become familiar with image processing and cutting software that are indispensable for the postproduction of your films.
 
Expert theoretical knowledge of film history and analysis is just as important a component of your studies. All our instructors are successfully active in the film and media branches. We organize regular work discussions and workshops with well-known directors, picture or sound designers.
 
We do not think in pigeonholes, but in moved and moving pictures. In the present era, the main part of filmic narratives is not only found on the big screen, but also on countless channels of the Internet and social media. Web series, smartphones and tablets offer unlimited platforms to tell the stories that you hold dear. You will choose yourself if, after your training, you want to focus on film directing, script writing, commissioned works, advertising, fictional or non-fictional contents. Our curriculum also opens up socially relevant, media-pedagogical fields of activity.
 
With your Advanced (Swiss) Federal Diploma of Higher Education you will be optimally networked at the end of your studies and will have produced at least three film or video projects on your own. You will also be in a position to work freelance or on a contractual or commissioned basis as a filmmaker or a project director in the most diverse fields of video and film production.
 
Start of School: mid August
Education: 4 years, part time