In 1968 the Museum of Design acquired the former home of the textile manufacturer Julian Bloch and moved part of its Applied Art collection into it.

Exhibitions are accompanied by a program of tours, symposia, panel discussions, talks with artists, film and theatre performances and concerts.

For reasons explicable in terms of design history the geographical focal points are Switzerland, Europe, Japan, Cuba, the former Soviet Union and the United States.

Parallel to the collection of objects, an archive for Swiss Design is being built up that benefits and assists scholarly research in the field.

Its Jugendstil department contains works by William Morris, Emile Gallé, René Lalique, Hermann Obrist and Henry van de Velde.

The Studio Glass generation of artists is represented in objects by, among others, Dale Chihuly, Erwin Eisch, Marvin Lipofsky, Harvey Littleton and Mary Shaffer.

In December 2016, the city parliament had approved operating subsidies of CHF 500,000 per annum for the new sponsorship for the years 2019 to 2022.

[2] The contents of the collections are continuously analyzed and researched in collaboration with the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) as well as other university-level institutions with the aim of contextually positioning them from a present-day viewpoint and opening them up for cross-disciplinary projects.

In addition to study, documentation and conservation, other services such as research, specialist evaluations and reproductions are also offered.

The Museum of Design produces publications, either self-printed or in collaboration with well-known publishing houses, which function as an important part of the exhibition program.