Author: Carolina Reuse

Sustainability Report

As a pro­fes­sion­al brand iden­tity design­er, I con­trib­uted to the stra­tegic aes­thet­ic brand devel­op­ment of Hel­vetica Prop­erty Investors—one of Switzerland’s fore­most real estate invest­ment man­agers. Dur­ing my time with the com­pany, I sup­por­ted the evol­u­tion of their visu­al iden­tity to bet­ter reflect their pos­i­tion in the B2B fin­an­cial sec­tor.

My role exten­ded bey­ond visu­al design. I col­lab­or­ated across depart­ments on the pro­duc­tion of mul­tiple annu­al reports and played a key part in the mul­tidiscip­lin­ary design for B2B com­mu­nic­a­tion mater­i­als. Addi­tion­ally, I was instru­ment­al in enhan­cing the com­pany’s digit­al pres­ence through improve­ments to the web­site’s struc­ture, design, and user exper­i­ence.

Domestication of Life

In fall 2017, the Uni­ver­sity of Zurich launched the inter­dis­cip­lin­ary lec­ture series From the Wild to Civil­iz­a­tion: The Domest­ic­a­tion of Life. Cov­er­ing top­ics from crop breed­ing pro­grams to the evol­u­tion of human nature, the series addressed ques­tions of social and polit­ic­al rel­ev­ance.

To engage a broad­er audi­ence bey­ond aca­demia, I developed a cam­paign fea­tur­ing indi­vidu­al posters for each of the 13 lectures—rather than the usu­al single design. Inspired by 1950s com­ic aes­thet­ics, the visu­als offered access­ible, humor­ous takes on com­plex top­ics while remain­ing aligned with the uni­versity’s cor­por­ate iden­tity. The series was shown across uni­ver­sity plat­forms, cinemas, intern­al dis­plays, and prin­ted posters.

The cam­paign was selec­ted for Grafik 17, Switzerland’s lead­ing graph­ic design exhib­i­tion.

Maximilian

How do you present a new, excit­ing cock­tail to guests every month without over­whelm­ing them with too much inform­a­tion? For the charm­ing Café Bar Max­imili­an in Zurich’s Kre­is 3, the solu­tion was a clear and enga­ging infograph­ic that cat­egor­ized their sig­na­ture cock­tails by fla­vor profile—fruity, sweet, and spicy. Integ­rated into the drink menu, this graph­ic could be eas­ily updated with new drinks each month without requir­ing a full menu redesign.

The design of the menu folder, fea­tur­ing a clip sys­tem and embossed cov­er, com­ple­ments the newly designed drink menu, cre­at­ing a cohes­ive and func­tion­al exper­i­ence.

Vademecum

Edit­or­i­al Design for Veter­in­ary Medi­cine Stu­dents.

The Vade­mecum is an inform­at­ive guide cre­ated by the Vet­suisse Fac­ulty at the Uni­ver­sity of Zurich, designed to sup­port veter­in­ary medi­cine stu­dents in nav­ig­at­ing their stud­ies and future pro­fes­sion. I was com­mis­sioned to devel­op the edit­or­i­al concept and lay­out in close col­lab­or­a­tion with the faculty’s dean’s office.

This 24-page bro­chure was designed in line with the Uni­ver­sity of Zurich’s cor­por­ate iden­tity, while allow­ing space for enga­ging, approach­able storytelling. The visu­al dir­ec­tion fea­tures strik­ing imagery by in-house pho­to­graph­er Michelle Aimee Oesch, provid­ing authen­t­ic glimpses into the every­day life and work of veter­in­ary pro­fes­sion­als.

The pub­lic­a­tion bal­ances clar­ity and warmth—offering aca­dem­ic guid­ance while also cel­eb­rat­ing the unique char­ac­ter of the veter­in­ary field. It’s a great example of how mul­tidiscip­lin­ary design for B2B and edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tions can com­bine edit­or­i­al strategy, visu­al storytelling, and brand align­ment to cre­ate mean­ing­ful com­mu­nic­a­tion tools.

Orchestra of Europe

Visu­al Iden­tity Design for an Inter­na­tion­al Clas­sic­al Ensemble. Foun­ded in 2011 by viol­in­ist Astrid Leut­wyler, the Orches­tra of Europe (OoE) is a col­lect­ive of musi­cians from across the continent—many of them former mem­bers of the pres­ti­gi­ous Gust­av Mahler Youth Orches­tra. From the begin­ning, it was clear that the brand­ing and cor­por­ate design for this ensemble needed to reflect more than just professionalism—it had to cap­ture music­al­ity, eleg­ance, and har­mony.

I developed a cus­tom word­mark based on a refined typeface, enhan­cing it with subtle, music-inspired details. The let­ters “c” and “h” are fused into a lig­at­ure, sym­bol­iz­ing con­nec­tion and flow. The “f”, drawn by hand, echoes the dynam­ic sym­bol forte, while the “p”—reminiscent of a music­al note—features a small flag, evok­ing an eighth note in motion.

The final visu­al iden­tity bal­ances restraint and expres­sion, much like clas­sic­al music itself. The brand­ing was applied across sta­tion­ery and print mater­i­als, includ­ing busi­ness cards and let­ter­head, sup­port­ing the ensemble’s inter­na­tion­al pres­ence with a quiet con­fid­ence.

This pro­ject is a great example of how brand­ing con­sultancy ser­vices and aes­thet­ic brand devel­op­ment can cre­ate visu­al sys­tems that are both func­tion­al and deeply meaningful—especially with­in the world of arts and cul­ture.

Pakka

Pack­aging Design for an Eth­ic­al Snack Brand. “Happy nuts taste bet­ter.” That’s not just a slogan—it’s a philo­sophy at the heart of Pakka, a Zurich-based Fair Trade and organ­ic pro­du­cer work­ing dir­ectly with farm­ing fam­il­ies in the coun­tries of ori­gin. By ensur­ing stable and above-aver­age incomes, Pakka sup­ports not only bet­ter live­li­hoods but also a more sus­tain­able food sys­tem.

Over the past few years, Pakka’s product range has grown sig­ni­fic­antly. I was brought on to expand their cor­por­ate design in line with the exist­ing brand iden­tity, and to cre­ate new pack­aging designs for each of their nut-based products. Each pack fea­tures a cus­tom-illus­trated Pakka anim­al, adding a play­ful and recog­niz­able visu­al ele­ment to the shelf pres­ence.

Pack­aging design is a dis­cip­line where everything comes togeth­er: visu­al storytelling, clear com­mu­nic­a­tion, reg­u­lat­ory com­pli­ance, and pro­duc­tion con­straints. It’s a challenge—but one I found deeply reward­ing, espe­cially know­ing that the work con­trib­utes to a brand with strong social and eco­lo­gic­al val­ues.

This pro­ject is a prime example of how brand­ing, aes­thet­ic brand devel­op­ment, and mul­tidiscip­lin­ary design for B2B and con­sumer products can sup­port mean­ing­ful change in the world.

Winterreden

Anim­ated Storytelling for a Cul­tur­al Series in Zurich. Every Janu­ary, when the Gross­mün­ster bells ring out at 6pm, some­thing spe­cial hap­pens: a voice from the worlds of sci­ence, cul­ture, or soci­ety appears in the ori­el win­dow of Karl der Grosse, speak­ing to the crowd below on Gross­mün­ster­platz. In 2019, the organ­izers brought these “Win­terre­den” into the digit­al space with a focused Ins­tagram cam­paign.

I was invited to cre­ate a 34-second anim­a­tion to intro­duce the evening’s program—from the live speech to the inform­al get-togeth­er after­ward. My goal was to tell this story in a way that felt enga­ging and access­ible, espe­cially to a young­er audi­ence. Using min­im­al words and a strong visu­al nar­rat­ive, the anim­a­tion cap­tures the unique energy of the event.

The illus­tra­tions were cre­ated by Tanja Di Maria, whose warm, express­ive style gave the film its dis­tinct­ive char­ac­ter. It was a great col­lab­or­a­tion and a lovely example of how graph­ic design, anim­a­tion, and cul­tur­al storytelling can come togeth­er to sup­port aes­thet­ic brand devel­op­ment and con­nect communities—offline and online.

Dogtores

Friendly Visu­al Iden­tity for a Com­munity-Focused Vet Clin­ic in Mex­ico.

The name Dog­tores is a clev­er blend of dogs and doctores (Span­ish for “doctors”)—a per­fect fit for a veter­in­ary clin­ic foun­ded by my friend Luis, a com­pas­sion­ate vet based in Puebla, Mex­ico. I was entrus­ted with devel­op­ing the clinic’s brand iden­tity, and in return, Luis offered some­thing equally mean­ing­ful: free spay and neu­ter ser­vices at a loc­al anim­al shel­ter.

The logo fea­tures a dog and a cat, Luis’ main patients. Rather than look­ing sick or ser­i­ous, the anim­als appear relaxed, even a bit mischievous—suggesting trust, recov­ery, and play­ful­ness. It’s rare to see unwell anim­als in a logo, but here, the focus is on the post-treat­ment moment: healthy, happy, and at ease.

The res­ult is a visu­al iden­tity that’s light­hearted yet professional—reflecting the clinic’s wel­com­ing tone and deep care for anim­al wel­fare. This pro­ject is a great example of how brand­ing con­sultancy ser­vices can sup­port socially driv­en busi­nesses and bring val­ues like com­pas­sion and access­ib­il­ity into visu­al form.

Vision-based tactile sensing

Visu­al­iz­ing robot­ic touch: concept illus­tra­tions for tact­ile sens­ing tech­no­logy. This pro­ject explores how robots can learn to “feel” by using a cam­era to sense pres­sure on soft mater­i­als. Instead of rely­ing on com­plex elec­tron­ics, the sys­tem uses a simple setup: a cam­era under a soft lay­er filled with tiny particles. When some­thing presses on the […]

Dog Reality

A Per­son­al Short Film Com­bin­ing Storytelling, Film­mak­ing & Anim­a­tion.

This short film fol­lows the quiet jour­ney of a dog named Nena through Zurich’s Wiedikon district—offering a gentle, four-legged per­spect­ive on the every­day life of a neigh­bor­hood. It’s a simple story, but one close to my heart. I developed the concept, wrote the script, cre­ated the story­board, filmed on loc­a­tion, and handled all post-pro­duc­tion. And yes—Nena is my dog.

The film was cre­ated as part of my dip­loma pro­ject for the Anim­a­tion pro­gram at EB Zurich. It gave me the chance to com­bine mul­tiple cre­at­ive disciplines—direction, cine­ma­to­graphy, edit­ing, and visu­al storytelling—into a single cohes­ive piece. The res­ult is a quiet but express­ive short film that invites view­ers to slow down and notice the details.

This pro­ject is a per­son­al reflec­tion of my pas­sion for mul­tidiscip­lin­ary design, where even small moments can be craf­ted with care and mean­ing.