Keeping it simple is a complex matter. And we wanted to share with you some of the key design principles that led to making it simple. Genius Loci the product it is today.
For several years, our team works on a simple but ambitious goal: to enable everyone to rediscover the places around us through their stories, while supporting cultural and tourist development at the local, regional and even European level. These stories and anecdotes deserve to be passed on. This is how the project was born Genius Loci. Stainless steel QR codes to highlight local heritage.
Alors Genius Loci, a simple QR?
Not really: our project was actually rewarded with a Gold Medal at the Geneva International Exhibition of Inventions in 2023. , as well as by a price Venture from ETH Zurich in 2024, recognizing its potential for cultural and technological innovation on a European scale.
From the outset, the idea was to offer a new, simple and very flexible asset enhancement tool, and above all accessible without application no technological brake: stainless steel medals, discreetly integrated into the public space, each equipped with an engraved QR code.
These medals are intended to be fixed on walls, trees, benches, statues, or places of passage, and provide access to rich digital content, often written by residents or passionate people, sometimes by development experts. Once the QR code is scanned, the user discovers an anecdote, a testimony, or a historical nugget linked to the place. The content is only revealed on site, on the principle of a treasure hunt, like a reward for curiosity.
Why this format? Because traditional signs, while effective in certain contexts, often pose several limitations. First, their high cost, which restricts their use to a few locations deemed priority, leaving the vast majority of sites without any mediation device. A sort of cultural no man's land. Second, their strong, sometimes imposing, visual presence can alter the aesthetics of certain sensitive or heritage sites. Finally, their content is often constrained by the available space, which leads to very generic messages, uninviting, and rarely updated.
Our approach is based on this observation. Rather than adding new large signs or trying to say everything everywhere, we chose to create a discreet network, spread across the city, village or region, which insinuates itself into the interstices of public space.These medals help to highlight "small heritage": this bench full of stories, this forgotten alleyway, this detail invisible to the passing eye. These are the places that make up the soul of a region, and to which we want to give a voice.
Our ambition is not to replace traditional signs but to extend them, to create a parallel, refined, distributed, and almost invisible signage. And yet, when you know how to recognize it, it's there. It reveals details, margins, and secrets.
Target curiosity, without necessarily soliciting everyone
From the outset, we made a clear choice: not to seek to capture everyone's attention, but to speak to those who already have this appetite for places and their stories. It is they who, most of the time, become the transmitters of memory. Those who tell stories, who transmit, who take others with them on a journey of discovery. By reaching this audience, even if it represents only a certain percentage of residents and visitors, we are banking on a diffusion effect: because they are the ones who will bring these stories to life and circulate them to future generations.
Why a medal rather than a large panel covered in text?
In psychology, we talk about the "information gap": that moment when we feel we're missing something. By reading the medal "Secrets of this place," translated into 16 languages, the attentive passerby perceives that some information is eluding them.
There is something important HERE. Behind this QR code
And that's often enough to trigger the act of scanning. This act becomes a personal act of discovery, which involves more than just passive reading.
What we are creating is not an information system, but a experimentDiscreet, deliberate. Those it touches experience a unique moment of transmission. Others are not disturbed. It's our way of respecting public attention, which is currently saturated.
We also know that this gentle frustration—the feeling that a place has something to tell, without anything directly indicating it—is a powerful driver of attention. This is the whole point of a minimal approach: to suggest rather than explain, to open the door without imposing the path.
Is it just for geeks? For tech enthusiasts? – We don't think so. Today, everyone has a phone in their pocket, and scanning a QR code has become a commonplace gesture for the majority of the population. What's not commonplace is finding a qualitative, rich, and profound experience behind this otherwise fairly low-tech and very simple interface.
What if the story was already there, but forgotten?
In every municipality, no matter how small, there is a readily available but rarely exploited memory. Municipal archives, archaeological reports, ancient documents, stories recorded in libraries, sometimes private Facebook groups or regional or national databases. Too often, these resources lie dormant in cabinets or on hard drives, far from public view.
This is a real missed opportunity today: these fragments of history deserve to be known and shared, and not preserved only for researchers or archivists. Genius Loci can be the tool that connects this dormant knowledge with your residents and visitors.
Our experience also demonstrates a deep interest from the local press and heritage specialists and academics who see it as a means of democratization that is a bridge to the youngest among us.
Behind the design: a methodology and in-depth thinking
This project is based on a conviction: today's design methods can serve the transmission of local history for generations to come.
We followed a rigorous design approach, inspired by UX design (user experience design) practices:
- Fast prototype : from 2022, using our knowledge of digital design and methodologies such as “ sprint design "We designed interactive models, tested user journeys, and validated initial feedback from qualitative tests. We conducted long interviews of around an hour with testers representative of our target audience. Our tests were conducted in several contexts: visitors, globetrotters, heritage enthusiasts, archaeologists, mediation experts, academic expert designers, etc.
- In situ tests : medals were placed in various contexts: stone, metal, wood, street furniture, or plants. We observed spontaneous reactions, the readability of the QR code, the installation height, and compatibility with everyday gestures. This allowed us to adjust every detail, including the contrast of the code, the texture of the metal, and the wording of the message. Some of the first tests were conducted in partnership with "la Salévienne," a regional history society with 200 members based in Haute-Savoie.
- Choice of materials and durability : I'316L stainless steel has established itself for its resistance and neutral aesthetics. It resists bad weather, vandalism, and neglect. Tests have also been conducted on natural corrosion and wear in different environments (mountains, coastline, city center).
- Dialogue with ABFs and experts preservatives: At the Heritage Fair at the Louvre and in several cities in Switzerland and France, we presented our approach to Building Architects. Their feedback was crucial in validating a respectful, reversible, and harmonious installation. Several integration scenarios were modeled, ranging from installation on existing modern elements (posts, barriers) to direct integration on the stone with two screws, when possible and controlled.
This work allowed us to create an object that fits naturally into its environment, without forcing its presence. These discussions also allowed us to imagine a back plate allowing screw-free installation on any type of vertical support (barriers, lampposts, grilles, etc.)
A discreet object, designed to last
Each medal is a compromise between invisibility and evocative power. Its size (10 cm), its round shape, its circular and multilingual engraving, its brushed steel that captures the light without shining—everything has been tested and carefully chosen.
The message is intentionally minimal: no instructions, no superficial storytelling. The secret is within. And for those who discover it, it's often a small poetic shock, a surprise, a new connection with the place.
Unlike a QR code stuck on a sign, our medal embodies an intention. It doesn't simply signal information; it suggests a presence, a mystery. And it's designed to last: in its noble material, but also in its relationship to time. You can walk past it ten times, and stop there the eleventh time. It's waiting.
Design isn't there to impose itself, but to invite. And this invitation is a gesture of trust toward passersby.
In addition, since the medals work in a network, finding one makes you want to discover them all.
And now? An invitation to decision-makers
We believe that the future of heritage lies in systems rooted in current practices. Discreet, interactive, and human. Our medals are already installed in many communities. They are gradually forming a network, a web of memories, that everyone can explore at their own pace.
As elected officials or public officials, you now have the opportunity to join this dynamic. Offer residents and visitors a different way of understanding the region. Give voice to the walls, trees, and stones. Do justice to humble places as well as grand monuments.
In a world saturated with signage and visible messages, offering a deliberately discreet device, “Swiss design" is a strong gesture. A choice of moderation, of finesse.
The technology is simple. The cost is manageable. The impact is lasting. But above all, the intention is right.
As decision-makers, you are the guarantors of this transmission. Today, a new generation of tools including Genius Loci is the incarnation that allows you to bring history to life in a different way. It's up to you to take the step.
Our team is ready to support all communities who wish to give voice to their heritage, with respect and elegance.
