Karl Gerstner [Hardcover]

Karl Gerstner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2, 2001

Karl Gerstner is one of Switzerland's preeminent graphic designers. In 1959, he and Markus Kutter founded the agency Gerstner + Kutter, which later became Gerstner, Gredinger, and Kutter (GGK). Before long, the agency had become one of the largest internationally acclaimed advertising firms in Switzerland. After withdrawing from active agency work, Gerstner designed the corporate identities for such companies as Swiss Air, Burda and Langenscheidt, in addition to working as worldwide identity consultant and designer for IBM. In visual language, Gerstner recapitulates his now 50 years of active work as a graphic designer. The ups and downs of a designer's professional life are vividly illustrated with samples of work that were both realized and rejected by his clients. Describing in detail how he managed to be such a successful and groundbreaking designer, Gerstner relates a narrative that is essential to the history of postwar design. Astutely written and brilliantly designed, visual language follows in the tradition of Gerstner's earlier period-defining classics, Designing Programs and Compendium for Literates.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Karl Gerstner was born in Switzerland in 1930. His work has been exhibited in museums and publications throughout the world. He was the subject of a 1973 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York dedicated to the method and philosophy of his work and entitled "think program." He has been nominated for the Art Director's Club of New York's Hall of Fame and was made an honorary member of the Art Directors Club of Germany in 1992.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Hatje Cantz Publishers (December 2, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3775790594
• ISBN-13: 978-3775790598
• Product Dimensions: 12 x 9.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,507,775 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mr Gerstner and the true meaning of Akzidenz Grotesk., February 3, 2004

By 

Robin Benson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Karl Gerstner (Hardcover)

I first be came aware of the work of Karl Gerstner while at art college in the late Fifties. I bought a copy of his first book 'Cold Art?', written in German, so I couldn't read it but I could follow the excellent analytical diagrams explaining the basis of mathematical abstracts as produced by Piet Mondrian, Josef Albers, Max Bill, Richard P Lohse, Gerstner and others. Thirteen pages of 'Cold Art' and spreads from his other books are also shown in this beautiful book of Gerstner's career.

His creative work from the fifties and sixties always used the typeface Akzidenz Grotesk (Standard Medium in English speaking countries) for text and headlines, despite, as he says, there being no italic. To make this type more complete he redesigned it as Gerstner Program and his work on this and another of his faces, IBM Original is explained in detail in the book.

His books, publication design, typefaces, logos, ads, packaging and thoughts on design and related areas of creativity are well presented throughout the book. I especially liked the last few pages which have some examples of his amazing computer generated art (in spreads from the Swiss magazine Basler Magazin) and this is why I find Gerstner so interesting, his graphic work covers such a wide area and interestingly, in the book, he also provides an intellectual underpinning of his creativity.

BTW the same publisher has produced a book devoted to Gerstner's paintings, graphics and computer art (ISBN 3775791515).

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.