Karl Gerstner is one of Switzerland's—and therefore the world's—best and best-known graphic and typographic designers. His high ambition in this book, first published in German in 1972, is to provide a complete and systematic taxonomy of writing, a programmed investigation into the underlying structure of script and type; Gerstner writes that his book is meant to "encompass the aspects and possibilities of the alphabet in their totality." It is this systematic and programmatic approach that sets the book apart. Most studies of typography and its larger graphic setting and context are concerned with the history of the development of writing and printing, or are collections of typographic models or typical examples, or are textbooks on layout and design. This one is organized into five sections that take up, in turn, Script and Speech—the relation between writing and language, different alphabets, reading directions (the eye follows directions and moves in a direction), style; Manual Graphics or craft—materials, tools, methods, procedures, reproductive techniques; Images—letter pictures, word pictures, sentence pictures, handwriting, size, proportion, type weight, form, harmony, texture, brightness, color; Function—as effected through dimensioning, spacing, grouping, layout, integration; and Expression—as achieved through coordination, articulation, emphasis, diversion, and the spirit of play. As a physical object, the book is more than a passive repository of examples of typographic display. It makes a dynamic and integrated typographic statement of its own and as a whole as it progresses and develops in accordance with its internal program. The book is nearly square and opens vertically rather than horizontally. Type is printed on only one side of the sheets, which are folded back on themselves along the outer edge to form double leaves, so that there is no distracting show-through "noise." There are words printed in blind embossing and stencil cutouts. And color is used with an elegant restraint, appearing only at the book's mid-section climax—its very sparseness amid the prevailing sharp black and white contributes a luxurious effect.

Compendium for Literates

History

GERSTNER, Karl

Historical Study & Educational Resources

"I cannot see why sensation should be less precise than thought. The scientist designs conceptual models, the artist perceptual models." —Karl Gerstner Color is Gerstner's essential medium. In this book, he presents the pure sensation of color with great precision. He explores color physically, sumptuously, yet with cool, formal clarity in the book's seventy color plates. He also pursues the subject of color historically and psychologically in a series of essays, citing examples from Aristotle to Andreas Speiser, from Goethe to Max Lüscher; theories and speculations about the character and employment of color and form. His notes and observations are often couched in a poetic, aphoristic manner: "Kandinsky: in general, then, color is a means of exercising a direct influence on the soul. The color is the piano key. The eye is the hammer. The soul is the piano key with all its strings." "Albers: if one says 'red' and 50 persons are listening to him, they will be imagining 50 reds. And no doubt: all these reds will be very different." "Goethe worked in his green room. In the blue one he welcomed guests he didn't like. So that they would leave soon." The essays include: The Spirit of Color: The Farbenlehre of Goethe; Conception—Perception: Fifteen Aspects to a Sentence of Max Bill; The Precision of Sensation; and Is Constructive Art at an End? Or its beginning? The illustrations include the "Color Sounds," the "Color Forms," and the "Color Lines."

Spirit of Colors: The Art of Karl Gerstner (English and German Edition)

Arts & Photography

History & Criticism

Mit Pr

Discusses the interaction of color and form, describes form systems, and looks at various kinds of geometry and color signs

The Forms of Color: The Interaction of Visual Elements (English and German Edition)

Swiss artist and designer, Karl Gerstner draws on artistic literary, and scientific sources, as well as on his own studio work to investigate the basic visual elements of color and form. Inspired by Wassily Kandinsky, Gerstner explores the ideas of continuous and evenly measured changes in the three dimensions of color - hue, tone, and saturation.

Graphic Design

This book will help practitioners overcome one of the leading challenges in couples therapy: working effectively with the male partner. Men have unique needs and psychological issues that many clinicians may not recognize or know how to address. This volume presents chapters by the leading practitioners associated with current therapeutic models, including Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy, Imago Relationship Therapy, Integrated Behavioral Couple Therapy, and more. Using in-depth case examples, they demonstrate how their approaches can be adapted to be "male-sensitive" and respond to the ambivalence so many men experience about couples work. Special topics are also addressed, including infidelity, cultural diversity, working with veterans, and fathering issues. This book will enrich therapists' work with couples, making treatment a welcoming experience for both partners and the treatment process more gratifying for the therapist.

Compendium for literates : a system of writing

MIT PRESS @

Karl Gerstner’s work is a milestone in the history of design. One of his most important works is Designing Programmes, which is presented here in a new edition of the original 1964 publication. In four essays, the author provides a basic introduction to his design methodology. Instead of set recipes, the method suggests a model for design in the early days of the computer era. The intellectual models it proposes, however, continue to be useful today. What it does not purvey is cut-and-dried, true-or-false solutions or absolutes of any kind - instead, it develops fundamental principles in an innovative and future-oriented way. The book is especially topical and exciting in the context of current developments in computational design, which seem to hold out the possibility of programmed design. With many examples from the worlds of graphic and product design, music, architecture, and art, it inspires the reader to seize on the material, develop it further, and integrate it into his or her own work.

Designing Programmes

Lars Müller Publishers

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.

Karl Gerstner

Hatje Cantz Publishers

The oeuvre Duchamp left us is small and repeatedly subject to multiple interpretations of the art historical, psychological, socio-critical and alchemical persuasion. And yet, how odd: Duchamp's last painting, Tu m' from 1918, has never drawn extensive attention among his exegetes. The title itself poses a riddle: Does it mean "tu m'aimes" (you love me), "tu m'emb'tes" (you bore me) or "tu m'emmerdes" (you can kiss my ass)? Karl Gerstner, a prominent Swiss graphic designer who knew Duchamp personally, was taken aback the first time he saw Tu m', but also intrigued. Having acquired a reproduction of the picture, Gerstner proceeded to penetrate its meanings and surfaces more and more deeply; as his surprise faded, his fascination grew. Enter this book, encouraged by artist Richard Hamilton (perhaps the most intimate of Duchamp connoisseurs), and its 20 analytical essays of riddle-solving.

Tu m'. Rätsel über Rätsel.

Duchamp, Marcel

Hatje Cantz Verlag

The oeuvre Duchamp left us is small and repeatedly subject to multiple interpretations of the art historical, psychological, socio-critical and alchemical persuasion. And yet, how odd: Duchamp's last painting, Tu m' from 1918, has never drawn extensive attention among his exegetes. The title itself poses a riddle: Does it mean "tu m'aimes" (you love me), "tu m'emb'tes" (you bore me) or "tu m'emmerdes" (you can kiss my ass)? Karl Gerstner, a prominent Swiss graphic designer who knew Duchamp personally, was taken aback the first time he saw Tu m', but also intrigued. Having acquired a reproduction of the picture, Gerstner proceeded to penetrate its meanings and surfaces more and more deeply; as his surprise faded, his fascination grew. Enter this book, encouraged by artist Richard Hamilton (perhaps the most intimate of Duchamp connoisseurs), and its 20 analytical essays of riddle-solving.

Marcel Duchamp: Tu m': Puzzle Upon Puzzle

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by GERSTNER, Karl. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by GERSTNER, Karl

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by GERSTNER, Karl. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Compendium for Literates

Spirit of Colors: The Art of Karl Gerstner (English and German Edition)

The Forms of Color: The Interaction of Visual Elements (English and German Edition)

The Forms of Color: The Interaction of Visual Elements (English and German Edition)

Compendium for literates : a system of writing

Designing Programmes

Karl Gerstner

Tu m'. Rätsel über Rätsel.

Marcel Duchamp: Tu m': Puzzle Upon Puzzle