Field of Activity
Thomas Ferraro responsibilities include the conception, design and implementation of diverse projects in all areas of visual communication. His tasks also include supporting BA- and MA-students through art direction and coaching in a variety of pratice-based learning projects, as well as mentoring thesis projects in the school’s bachelor programme.
Biography
Thomas Ferraro was born in Brooklyn, New York. He studied art and design at the Cooper Union for the Advancement and Art in New York City, where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA). He continued his education at the Advanced Class for Graphic Design (Weiterbildungsklasse für Grafik) at the Basel School of Design, Basel, Switzerland.
After graduating, he worked as a designer in Munich and New York at KMS Team and Chermayeff and Geismar Inc. His work encompassed visual identity, publication and exhibition projects for diverse cultural and business clients. He has also taught typography at the Parsons School of Design in New York.
In 2005, he returned to Basel to work at the in-house design office Büro für Kommunikationsdesign (BKD) during the inception of the newly formed Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz (University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland). In 2016, The studio was integrated into the Institute Digital Communication Environments (IDCE) as the Analog Digital Communication Lab (AnDiCo Lab), where BA- and MA-students can participate in practiced-based learning projects and can bring together academic theory with workplace practice.
Projects
- Visual identity design of the Foundation for Art and Design Basel (FAB)
- Organisation of the IDCE Lecture series “Identify” (2020)
- Establishing the Professional Pratice / Pratice-Based Learning AnDiCo Lab IDCE
- Art direction / mentoring various Pratice-Based Learning external projects (Messe Basel, the Bell Food Group, F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF), myclimate / EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg and the Musik-Akademie Basel.
- Development, design and implementation of the FHNW Corporate Identity. This includes the logo, all CD elements, internal and external means of communication, various publication and typographic systems, and social media formats. Collaborated with other designers on the further development and standardization of the brand appearance including the CD manual and brand guardianship (2006–2012).
Exhibitions
- Poster represented in the exhibition “Swiss Graphic Design @ China: The Basel School of Design” in Chengdu, China, December 2022 – February 2023.
- Poster represented in the exhibition “Basel in Taipei- Swiss Graphic Design”, National Taiwan Normal University, College of Arts, October 2020.
- Symbol and book design represented in the traveling exhibition “Weingart Typography” and the Weingart (graphics collection) archive in The Museum für Gestaltung Zürich.
- Posters included in the collections of the Poster Collection of the Basel School of Design and The Museum für Gestaltung Zürich.
Awards
- Corporate Design Preis 2003, finalist for the Wiedemann Werkstätten Corporate Identity
- Berliner Type, Diplom, for the GPC Biotech Annual Report 2002
- Red Dot 2002 for ProSiebenSat.1 Annual report 2001
- The New York Festivals 2001, finalist Certificate for the ProSiebenSat.1 Corporate Identity
- Corporate-Design-Preis 2001, finalist for the ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG Corporate Identity
- Corporate-Design-Preis 2001, finalist for the Evotec OAI Corporate Identity
- Society for Environmental Graphic Design, Merit Award, 1999 for the Jill Kupin Rose Gallery exhibition, New York Public Library
- Deutscher Preis für Kommunikationsdesign (Red Dot Award) 1998 for the Fischer Bibliothek book cover concept
- Merit Award from Art Directors Club New York 1998 for the Fischer Bibliothek book cover concept