Curriculum 21 marks a new orientation for teaching art and design in Switzerland, in cantons with German-speaking schools. The importance of professional and interdisciplinary competence development in connection with the artistic process is emphasized more strongly than in the previous, product-oriented understanding of the subject. Via encounters with images from art and everyday life, pupils are sensitized to different forms of artistic expression in three competence areas: perception and communication, processes and products and contexts and orientation. They should be able to express their ideas and intentions in pictures and engage with visual forms of communication in a productive and receptive way. The visual competence thus developed enables the pupils to orient themselves in an environment shaped by images. The dense and challenging desideratum of the new syllabus for the teaching of visual design requires new theory-based impulses and learning support for the training and continuing education of teachers. This research and development project aims to use exemplary lessons to develop cumulative, cognitively-activating instruction for the 2nd and 3rd cycles. The development of pupils' competences is to be made visible by means of pre- and post surveys. The lessons will be tested, documented, analyzed and evaluated in three school classes. The learning situations will be anchored in the subject, in the areas of color and painting; they will focus on surveying learning status, on the teacher’s awareness of the pupils’ abilities, experiences and previous knowledge, and on means of support and guidance in the development of individual competences. The provision of instruments for learning status assessment and the assessment of competence development as well as inspirational materials and learning support aids for promoting competence development are included in these considerations.