Karl Gerstner

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Karl Gerstner

Karl Gerstner (born July 2, 1930 in Basel ; † January 1, 2017 there ) was a Swiss graphic designer , advertiser and important representative of Swiss typography .

Life

After high school and the preliminary design course at the general trade school in Basel , Karl Gerstner did an apprenticeship as a graphic designer in the Fritz Bühler studio between 1945 and 1948 . At the same time, he attends courses with Emil Ruder at the trade school . Together with Markus Kutter , he founded the advertising agency Gerstner + Kutter in 1959, which in 1962 became " GGK " with Paul Gredinger's participation . The GGK has long been one of the most successful agencies in Switzerland and later Germany. It had branches in many European countries.

After retiring from the advertising world, Gerstner became involved in publishing. Johannes Gross , then editor-in-chief of the Cologne business magazine Capital , hired him as a consultant. For many years, Gerstner worked with the editor-in-chief to design the content and appearance of the monthly cover story.

When the publishing house Gruner + Jahr launched the business magazine impulse in 1980 , Gerstner was also heavily involved in the project. He designed the visual appearance of the magazine and, as with Capital , played a decisive role in the design of the cover stories. In 1981/82 he was also a consultant for the art magazine art , which also published an article about Gerstner as an artist in issue 11/1981.

As an independent consultant, he was a feared but also valued critic of the editorial work in the editorial offices.

Gerstner's best-known works include the 1963 book Programs Design . The exhibition “Designing Programs / Programming Designs: An Exhibition of Karl Gerstner” curated by Emilio Ambasz in the New York Museum of Modern Art in 1973 was based on this book.

In 1964 his works were shown at the documenta III in Kassel in the graphics department and also in 1968 at the 4th documenta .

His archive has been in the graphic collection of the Swiss National Library since 2006 .

Gerstner was also known as an art collector. The extensive art collection of Karl Gerstner has been on view in the Museum Weserburg in Bremen since 1991 . Works by Arman , George Brecht , Christo , Robert Filliou , Raymond Hains , Bernhard Luginbühl , Dieter Roth , Daniel Spoerri , Hugo Suter , André Thomkins , Jean Tinguely and Jakob Weder are presented in changing exhibitions .

Publications

Title page of "Compendium for Alphabets"
Book title from "Cold Art?" 1957

Exhibitions

literature

  • documenta III. International exhibition ; Catalog: Volume 1: Painting and Sculpture; Volume 2: Hand Drawings; Volume 3: Industrial Design, Graphics; Kassel / Cologne 1964
  • Exhibition catalog for the IV. Documenta: IV. Documenta. International exhibition ; Catalog: Volume 1: (Painting and Sculpture); Volume 2: (Graphics / Objects); Kassel 1968

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Designing Programs / Programming Designs: An Exhibition of Karl Gerstner. Retrieved February 6, 2019 .
  2. ^ [1] Collection Gerstner, Weserburg Bremen
  3. ↑ Think program: synopsis of the exhibition “designing programs / programming designs” by Karl Gerstner. In: Museum of Modern Art, New York. February 5, 1973. Retrieved August 2, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Gerstner, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss typographer and graphic designer
DATE OF BIRTH 2nd July 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Basel
DATE OF DEATH January 1, 2017
Place of death Basel