Winterreden

Every Janu­ary at 6 PM, as the bells of Zurich’s Gross­mün­ster chime, a tra­di­tion unfolds: a prom­in­ent voice from the world of sci­ence, cul­ture, or soci­ety appears in the ori­el win­dow of Karl der Grosse, a renowned cul­tur­al cen­ter in Zurich. Speak­ing to the crowd gathered on Gross­mün­ster­platz, these “Win­terre­den” (Winter Speeches) have become a thought­ful moment of pub­lic reflec­tion.

In 2019, the organ­izers expan­ded the reach of this event with a digit­al cam­paign on Ins­tagram. I was invited to cre­ate a 34-second anim­a­tion that intro­duced the evening’s program—from the live speech to the inform­al get-togeth­er that fol­lows. With min­im­al text and a strong visu­al storyline, the anim­a­tion was designed to be enga­ging, access­ible, and res­on­ate espe­cially with a young­er audience—bringing the spir­it of the event into the digit­al age.

The illus­tra­tions were cre­ated by Tanja Di Maria.