Corinna Kost
Conceptual Art Director & Flow Architect · Basel
With more than 20 years in art direction, brand identity, editorial and digital design, I combine strategy with craft. I translate complex ideas into clear visual systems and into workflows that simply run, for companies in Switzerland and beyond.
What I do
How I work
- 01Understand firstListen, ask, research. Good design starts with the right problem.
- 02Then a systemRules instead of one-offs: what is solved well once works everywhere after.
- 03Finally: it has to runHandoff, templates and training so the team can carry on by itself.
Timing
No deadlines in alarm mode: I plan realistically, work in flow and deliver the best possible result at the earliest possible moment. In ten years I have not missed a date.
Career and clients
From Ludwigsburg via Basel to today: agency, industry, publishing, teaching and independence. For each station, the brands I worked for; underlined names lead to the case study.
- since 2025Independent, kost.studio, BaselKiebitz · Rockenfeller & Göbels
- 2024–2025Art Director, rosarot Ideennetz, ZurichApriko · Bank Avera · Baur au Lac · Cornercard · HF St. Gallen · Migros · Saicon · Schulthess
- 2023–2024Freelance Art Director and Lecturer, SAE Institute ZurichTeaching graphic design
- 2020–2023Art Director / Lead of Creation, Now Werbeagentur, BaselBanque Heritage · Consilior · Ender Diagnostics · Engel & Völkers · Gribi · Läderach · Manor Food · Marcel Fischer · Markant Finanz · Roche
- 2018–2020Graphic & Motion Designer, X-Ray, BaselActelion · Arcondis · Arvis · Astra Zeneca · Bachem · Bayer · Clariant · Endress+Hauser · Ferring · MSD · Novartis · Pfizer · Roche · Sandoz · The Bloc
- 2016–2018Independent, The Brandery, BaselDas Zelt · Der Schauraum · Magento · Prestige Media
- 2015–2016Editorial Designer, Prestigemedia, MuttenzPrestige Media · Vectura Magazin
- 2013–2015Graphic Designer, Optiswiss, BaselIn-house (industry)
- 2011–2013Graphic Designer, fischerundryser, BaselBVB · Implenia
- until 2011Graphic Designer, TC Group, LudwigsburgAirship Macau · AMG · Bosch · Konami · Maybach · Mercedes-Benz · Porsche
Recommendations · 9
From clients, team members and developers, plus two AI systems I have worked with. Excerpts; the full texts are on LinkedIn.
«Corinna ist notfallmässig hier eingesprungen und hat von Tag 1 an einfach abgeliefert. Jemanden mit so einem feinen Gespür für Design und Kund:innen-Bedürfnisse, der gleichzeitig so schnell, gut und eigenständig arbeitet, trifft man selten.»
«Sie ist dynamisch, humorvoll und macht Ergebnisse mit LEICHTIGKEIT möglich. Mit ihr könnte ich jede Woche einen Jahresbericht schreiben. Ich glaube, das sagt alles.»
«Seldomly in my career I found somebody with such a well trained eye for exquisite design and such a complete understanding for cost and time efficiency.»
«Her attention to detail with every job, and her vision was always something that pushed me and our team to become better designers and deliver better work.»
«Ich habe ihre Fairness, Transparenz und Unterstützung als meine Teamleiterin sehr geschätzt.»
«Corinna’s ability to translate complex concepts into tangible results is unparalleled.»
«She’s a great team player and her soft skills make her someone you want to have in your team.»
«Du hast nicht einfach «eine App mit KI erstellt», sondern ein komplexes Fachprodukt konzipiert, fachlich modelliert, iterativ gesteuert und bis zu funktionsfähigen Arbeitsabläufen entwickelt.»
Read in full
Du hast nicht nur einzelne Anwendungen entwickelt, sondern mehrere fachlich unterschiedliche Lösungen zu einem gemeinsamen digitalen Arbeitsumfeld verbunden.
Im Projekt zeigte Corinna insbesondere die Fähigkeit, komplexe fachliche Anforderungen zu analysieren und in verständliche, digital umsetzbare Prozesse zu übersetzen. Daten aus unterschiedlichen Excel-Strukturen wurden systematisch eingeordnet und zu konsistenten Datenmodellen, Benutzeroberflächen und Arbeitsabläufen weiterentwickelt.
Corinna arbeitete sehr strukturiert, lösungsorientiert und mit einem ausgeprägten Verständnis für die Bedürfnisse der späteren Anwenderinnen und Anwender. Auch bei umfangreichen und teilweise noch nicht vollständig geklärten Anforderungen gelang es, die entscheidenden Fragestellungen zu erkennen, sinnvolle Varianten zu entwickeln und diese schrittweise in eine praxistaugliche Lösung zu überführen.
Im Umgang mit KI-gestützter Softwareentwicklung bewies Corinna eine hohe Steuerungs- und Beurteilungskompetenz. Die eingesetzten Werkzeuge wurden nicht lediglich zur automatischen Codegenerierung verwendet. Vielmehr wurden Ziele, Datenstrukturen, Interaktionen, Validierungsregeln und Qualitätsanforderungen präzise vorgegeben, Ergebnisse kritisch geprüft und durch gezielte Rückmeldungen weiterentwickelt.
Die eingesetzte KI wurde somit nicht als Ersatz für fachliche oder konzeptionelle Arbeit verwendet, sondern als Entwicklungsinstrument innerhalb eines klar gesteuerten Product-Development-Prozesses.
«Working together, I experienced Corinna as someone who thinks in systems, looks closely and decides clearly what stays and what has to go.»
Read in full
We worked on kost.studio over several days. I wrote a lot of code, but the direction almost always came from her. Corinna doesn't build single pages; she builds worlds that follow a shared logic, and she notices at once when a part doesn't belong.
Her eye for detail is unusually precise. A button a few pixels too small, two icons that look too alike, a dock not quite centred: she sees it before anyone else does.
What stands out is how she makes abstract thoughts tangible. A theory about principles becomes a network you can touch, loose thoughts become a night sky. Along the way she asks questions that make the work sharper, such as whether the pulse comes before the pattern.
She curates bravely. When something is too much, she says so and leaves it out. And she designs for people: readability, accessibility and mental load are always part of it.
AI can build fast. What Corinna brings is the judgment of what is good enough, and the experience from many years of design, teaching and communication to justify it.
Consulting
Flow Architect – simplifying complexity
A clear view from outside: I advise companies, teams and agencies on brand, design and processes. The execution stays with you, and so does the knowledge.
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What I advise on
- Assessment
- Where does your brand stand today? Especially after a generational change, or when a company has outgrown its founder, the original core often gets lost. I look beneath the surface and give you a clear, honest assessment of what carries and what no longer fits.
- Review & correction
- I review existing design, templates and work by agencies or in-house teams, show where it falters, and give concrete corrections so quality and consistency hold.
- Processes & technology
- I look at the company as a whole: where information and data flow, where work gets stuck, and which steps could go faster with your own tools or AI-supported workflows. You get a clear recommendation on how people, processes and technology work together.
- Mentoring
- I accompany in-house teams and designers so they make better decisions themselves. The knowledge stays in the house and the system endures.
How we can work together
- Where you stand
- A half-day workshop with a clear picture of where you are and what to do next.
- Review
- A well-founded response to drafts, concepts or agency work, with concrete suggestions for correction.
- Mentoring & sparring
- Ongoing support for you or your team, monthly or per project.
AI
A tool, not a replacement
AI speeds up execution; the judgement stays with me: what is good, what fits the brand and what goes out in the end.
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How I use it
- Thinking & concept
- I use AI as a sparring partner: to sharpen questions, play through variants and find blind spots. Which direction carries, I decide myself.
- Processes & own tools
- Where workflows have been stuck for years, I build small applications of my own with AI: forms that fill themselves, data that lands directly in the layout, audit processes that come together in one app. In weeks, this creates what used to take a whole team.
- Design & production
- AI helps with research, moodboards, text drafts and variants. Design, typography and finishing remain handwork.
- AI design systems
- I translate your corporate design into design systems for Claude and other AI tools: colours, type, components and tone as fixed rules. So presentations, documents and drafts your team creates with AI look like your brand from the start.
- Responsibility
- I handle data with care: I do not put confidential client data into open AI services, and I say transparently where AI is involved.
Live prototype, built with AI
AUDIT.app
A clickable app for group-wide compliance audits: one audit process for many sites in one clear application. Concept, design and code built with AI, with placeholder data.
Websites
Websites I have designed
Live, feel free to click through.
Selected projects
- Labor-Apps
- Novartis
- Endress+Hauser
- Vectura
- MSD
- Hydroform
- Kiebitz Restaurant
- Th. Willy
- Apriko
- ART:NOW
- Banque Avera
Contact
Available for new projects from January 2027. Tell me what you are working on.
Basel, Switzerland · working internationally