Tag: gerstner

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Karl Gerstner (continued)

We are relocating!
In the coming weeks we will be occupied with packing and moving our internet store inventory. The entire collection needs to be transferred from Leidschendam to Oegstgeest, and this will take some time.
If all goes according to plan, we will be fully operational again on November 21st, but until then, it may happen that we are unable to immediately assist you with your order. We ask for your understanding, but as soon as possible, your order will be fulfilled with the utmost speed.

Karl Gerstner (1930–2017) was a leading representative of Swiss typography and one of the most important innovators of typography, advertising graphics and corporate design. From 1945 to 1948, he completed an apprenticeship in Fritz Bühler’s studio and attended courses at the Allgemeine Gewerbeschule Basel, where Armin Hofmann and Emil Ruder were his instructors. In 1949 he followed Max Schmid’s call and joined the legendary design team of Geigy Pharmaceuticals, where he later met the copywriter and editor Markus Kutter. In 1959 they founded the advertising agency Gerstner + Kutter, which was joined by architect Paul Gredinger and in 1963 became GGK (Gerstner Gredinger Kutter), one of Europe’s most successful advertising agencies. Gerstner left the agency in 1970 to focus on his art and on selected design projects. Karl Gerstner had a significant influence on Swiss typography and graphic design. As an artist, he developed a systematic language of colors and forms and pleaded for a correlation between art and everyday life and a functional and aesthetic design of the environment.

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Georg Gerstner (1928-2019)

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Georg Gerster is considered as one of the true masters of Aerial photography and the best way to prove this is to have one look at the series he made for Swissair. This is sheer brilliance and all posters feature a photograph which you must study first to understand. In many subjects there is a form of abstraction , but the reality is it is just  a compostion from a photograph taken from high above the subject. He started this way of Photography in 1963 and visited over 100 countries to make his fantastic photographs. He is considered as one of the pioneers in this metier  and will be remembered for many “classic’ aerial photographs

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Between 1971 and 1996 the swiss master of aerial photography Gerster created 60 poster for swissair, together with graphic designer Emil Schulthess, Hans Frei or Karl Gerstner.

He was born in Winterthur, Switzerland, on April 30th, 1928 and studied classical languages at his local grammar school, before reading German and English at Zurich University, where he also received his doctorate. From 1950 to 1956 he was science editor of the Zurich Weltwoche. Since 1956 he has been a freelance journalist specializing in science reporting and aerial photography. He has undertaken extensive visits to every part of the world, including Antarctica.

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By pursuing this line of reasoning, Georg Gerster has turned aerial photography into something more probing, something that, with luck, may prove a contemplative, philosophical instrument encouraging greater reflection.

His way of viewing the world has caught on and found many imitators. Georg Gerster consoles himself with the thought that imitation is still the sincerest form of flattery.

For two decades Georg Gerster’s aerial photographs for Swissair’s posters and calendars had contributed substantially to the airline’s image.

Gerster worked on a regular basis for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung and the Washington-based National Geographic Magazine. Today he works for the Swiss online news platform Journal21. Further his works are known among Photography- and Artlovers and are part of several Art Portfolios.
Georg Gerster died 90 years old, outside Zurich on February 8th, 2019. 

gerstner swissair

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Karl Gerstner and Nouvelle Tendence, 1964

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Nouvelle Tendance is an international group of avant-garde artists founded in Paris. Under this title, five international exhibitions were organized with innovative art.

The artists in this movement experimented with lighting effects, kinetic art and Opart. In 1968 they brought one of the first exhibitions with computer art. From that moment, they published nine issues of their magazine Bit International, including two double issues.

Many of the members of Nouvelle Tendance were affiliated with local movements such as ZERO, Nul, Grav, Equipo 57 and others. In contrast to these local moves, Nouvelle Tendance had no statutes or regulations.

This in short what i found as a description of this mouvement. However there is more because in 1964 this mouvement was received an important exhibition at the Musee des Arts decoratifs, recognizing it as an important international art form. Karl Gerstner designed the poster for the exhibition and now i have this original poster for sale. The poster is in excellent almost MINT condition and i believe this to be the only copy currently to be on the market.

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Dennis Bailey (1931-2016) a prominent British graphic designer

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It was just recently that my eye was caught by a cover for a British exhibition on Architecture. ( available at www.ftn-books.com) The exhibition “ARCHITECTURE TODAY, has over 140 page filled with examples of typical Sixties architecture but what made it stand out for me was the excellent cover by Dennis Bailey.

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Bailey was of great influence to other British designers because he taught at the Central School Of Art & Design (1957-60), Chelsea School of Art (1970-81) and at Middlesex Polytechnic during the late 1980s.

I wondered why i find his design so appealing. It must have been the influence of Swiss design . at least there is a hint Gerstner in his designs and it is no wonder, because he contributed for a period of over 20 years to GRAPHIS magazine based in Zurich.

For more information on this great Britisch designer please read the article that i found over here:

Remembering Dennis Bailey – design’s unassuming statesman

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Wim Crouwel….SM Gedrukt in Japan / 1967

Wim Crouwel is a regular name appearing in my blog. This is not only because i have many titles available at www.ftn-books.com, but mainly because i consider Wim Crouwel the most important graphic designer from last century. There are some that are important too and i think of Gerstner and Sandberg, but Wim Crouwel is in my opnion the absolute best. Wim Crouwel made some 200+ designs between 1960 and 1980 for the Stedelijk Museum, Among them posters, catalogues an folders and many have become iconic for graphic design in the Sixties. There was of course the VORMGEVERS catalogue which is in high demand and extremely hard to find, but the one i would like to discuss now is the GEDRUKT IN JAPAN catalogue, which has become rare and expensive too. It is of great graphici quality and although it is only 20 pages, for me it is the summit in design from the sixties. A simple but highly effective lay out. The use of Magenta on the front . The SM logo and underneath a very very fine line with below it one of the logo’s for the Osaka Art Festival . Published in 1967 with no. 407……it is perfection on the 20 pages.

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Karl Gerstner and some typographic designs from the 60s

A Book market visit yesterday….. and some lucky finds. There is of course the very rare Karl Gerstner: Typographisches Memorandum which i found in very good condition. The copy will be available from today at www.ftn-books.com

I believe that this is the only copy currently on the market

Here are the pictures of this excellent and rare publication by Karl Gerstner.

The other books were perhaps less spectacular and not as rare as the Gerstner book, but it struck me that some great typographical designs were made by the end of sixties and in the early seventies and these are no exception. Please take a look at the photograph and see the covers by some lesser known designers like Philip Luidl, Wim Strijbosch, Hans Barvelink, Louis Emmerik and Siegfried Odermatt. Not the household names you encounter frequently in this blog and not as rare as the Gerstner publications i now have in stock, but great quality designers who made some outstanding covers/books.

design 60s

Until the end of the month there is a special discount on the Gerstner publications i have in stock. Use GERSTNER10 to receive a 10% discount on the Gerstner publications. Valid until the 31st of March.

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Karl Gerstner (1930-2017) – Kalte Kunst?

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Karl Gerstner

One of the greatest book designers recently died. Karl Gerstner died on the 1st day of this New Year.

If there was one iconic Swiss book from the late Fifties it is probably Kalte Kunst?

Designed by Karl Gerstner, this book has become an example to many. Look at the early Wim Crouwel designs….influence Gerstner. Benno Wissing…influence Gerstner.

Karl Gerstner is a contemporary designer who’s work is strong and clean, but full of details. Typography and design melt together into a publication which is modern and classic. One of the first of these publications was Kalte Kunst? in which the most modern artist from the fifties were invited to make a contribution, which was placed within the publication. Special prints, silkscreens and litho’s were bound in Kalte Kunst?

“Kalte Kunst?” (1957, 2 editions, both 1000 copies) was Gerstner’s first authored book where he advocates for a specific form of rational, geometric and mathematical art with examples from Josef Albers, Max Bill, Camille Graeser, Richard P. Lohse, Gerard Ifert, Mary Vieira and Marcel Wyss.

a great biography on gerstner can be found here:http://www.historygraphicdesign.com/the-age-of-information/the-international-typographic-style/256-karl-gerstner

A true classic and one of the only copies on the market at this time available at www.ftn-books.com together with some other Gerstner publications.

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Kalte Kunst