Recently, I had the opportunity to visit Lausanne, on the occasion of the annual McDonald’s Switzerland CoOp-meeting. The city offers a vast variety of cultural highlights, including historic churches, museums and leading design schools such as ECAL.

The CoOp-meeting: the future of the hamburger

The meeting was held in a location, which itself is noteworthy: the historic hotel Royal Savoy. The hotel which features an Art Nouveau deco was a place of retreat for royals and aristocrats over many centuries. The meeting provided a great opportunity to find out more about McDonalds, its results and KPIs during 2019 and what is planned for 2020, in terms of new marketing campaigns, products and launches. Particularly great was the chance to meet so many different talented people, from all parts of the organisation. A highlight was the gift of a Big Mac Hipster notebook, featuring on the cover one of my favourite McDonald campaigns, the «50 Jahre Big Mac» campaign.

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Tip: if you visit the Royal Savoy hotel, do not miss the vast artworks shown, including some graphic prints of Erker Galerie in St- Gallen. Another highlight is the award-winning “Spa du Royal” where you can relax. Finally, don’t miss a visit to the Sky Lounge with its incredible views.

Olympic Art?

During my stay in Lausanne, I had the opportunity to explore art in the Olympic Museum. The museum which was founded in 1993 features permanent and temporary exhibits relating to sport and the Olympic movement.

Some personal art & design highlights from the Olympic museum:

1. Andy Warhol, Sarajevo 1984 

Lazar ‘Lazo’ Vujic, a gallerist originally from Sarajevo and working in Vienna, invited 16 artists to produce a portfolio of artworks in honor of 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics. Vujic, who knew Warhol from earlier times, invited Warhol to a project. According to Vujic, Warhol asked who are the other artists and when he heard that Henry Moore was one of them, he immediately agreed to join the team. (Lazo Vujić: ‘Warhol nam je pričao o svojoj maserki iz Bosne‘“. jutarnji.hr.)

2. Roy Lichtenstein, Los Angeles 1984

3. Nagano 1998, Prototype de la vasque by Kiyoyuki Kikutake

In 2016, the Olympic Museum collection was enriched by the donation of the prototype of the bowl of the Nagano Winter Olympics 1998 by its designer, the renowned Japanese architect and sculptor Kiyoyuki Kikutake. The prototype of the basin, made in scale 1/3 of the original basin, reproduces a bundle of coloured branches. Nowadays, the original basin can be found at the entrance of the park ‘Minami Nagano Sports Park’.

4. 1970s costume, London 2012

Exploring the Olympic Gardens

Breathtaking was a walk in the Olympic Gardens at night, where athletes were training on the “red carpet”.  The “footballers (les footballers)”, a statue by Niki de Saint-Phalle overlooking Lac Léman, wonderfully lit columns as well as an amazing rotating torso sculpture caught my attention. Further impressive was the museum building itself: designed by Mexican architect Pedro Ramírez Vázquez, an International Olympic Committee member, and Jean-Pierre Cahen.

Tip: the Olympic museum features a really cool Race track. Don’t miss the section with the Olympic costumes.

Thanks to McDonalds Switzerland and Lucia Meyer for this opportunity.