Gestalten

Gestalten and Monocle Bring You Travel Guides, and Some Videos.

As we roll up to Labor day, people are getting ready for that last summer vacation, taking advantage of the long weekend. I’ve burned all my vacation days for the year so I’ll just be taking one extra day off. That doesn’t mean you can’t take a week or two and go somewhere fun though. And to help find all the cool stuff you’ll want to see and do in the exotic destination of your choice Gestalten has released a whole series of guide books from Monocle.

That isn’t what this is about though. This post is about the way Gestalten has truly learned to use video on the internet to promote its product line. If you pop over to their Vimeo page, there are at least seven videos like the one below. They have them cross posted via their social media channels and if you receive the Gestalten newsletter via email, you would have probably seen links pointing back to all of these which, point back to the Gestalten online store where you can buy the product.

The videos are always well crafted, with a high-quality production value, and because they live on the internet, the media buy is cheap and the reach is far.

Now I have to figure out how to get more vacation time because I want to go to Stockholm.

Graphic Design Today from Gestalten

cover Having spent more than half of my life working in the graphic design and communications business I have seen many design trends come and go. One thing that is certain, is the state of graphic design is in constant flux. This is reflected in “Graphic Design Today” an in-depth survey on progressive contemporary graphic design from Gestalten. In recent years, graphic designs relationship with adjoining disciplines such as illustration, three-dimensional installation art, industrial design, interactive design, UI/UX design has pushed the further development of the discipline. And this in turn is raising the bar for graphic designers.

This book from Gestalten examines and documents the current state of graphic design, identifying some of the most visionary young designers at the top of their game with examples of their progressive design aesthetics in the printed form. The book features a wide range of graphic design samples ranging from poster design, book, and magazine editorial design as well as typography. Most of the work is print oriented and shows a trend that I find interesting, a desconstructavist approach to visual design that blends elements of the 1980’s 90’s and early 2000’s into a unique style that intentionally manipulates and distorts traditional rules and ideas with a playful and experimental verve.

Graphic Design Today features design trends from Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands, France, Great Britain and the USA. Through abundant visuals and illuminating texts accompanying each featured project, and a foreword by François Rappo, renowned typographer, and teacher at ECAL Ecole cantonale d’art de Lausanne, this expansive volume provides an in-depth look at the state-of-the-art of contemporary graphic design and is going in my design library.

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Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!

Nothing gets me going more then when multiple thing I am interested in come together at the same time. For instance, Graphic Design, Film, Automotive Design, and Industrial Design. In this case it is one of the latest books from Gestalten, the topic, and the support film released on their website.

Gentlemen, Start Your Engines! is a record of limited edition, history making vehicles, and industrial design finessed into rolling art. All of this is packaged in a beautifully designed book that is filled with show stopping photography, type, and page layouts. Jared Zaugg and the team at Bonhams have put together a book that gives the reader a true sense of the intensity of true automobile culture, representing it in a large format designed to showcase the forms and details of these classics.

The short video below is a wonderfully shot and edited piece that highlights the contributors to the book, the cars themselves, and the the content that fills the pages. With each short film they release the crew at Gestalten gets better and better at their craft. The video itself really does a fantastic job of selling the story behind the book, and the book itself.

“The book features a selection of models that go far beyond mere technical stats and gleaming chrome. Rather, they all offer something far more valuable: compelling stories. These include the rare and uniquely configured Lamborghini Miura SV Coupe purchased by rock star Rod Stewart. Or the Bugatti Type 57S Atalante Coupe from 1937 that, after the owner’s death, was rediscovered by his family sitting exactly as he left it nearly a half-century earlier. All the big names are included, but the focus is on what can be found behind the logos and the polished surfaces.”

Out of the Jar.

Out of the Jar by Gestalten is a new book about the best, and some of the most unusual spirits from small distillers around the world. These are spirits made by a new generation of distillers who are using combinations of rare fruits, herbs, grains and spices to reinvent and reinterpret high octane recipes for alcoholic drinks. The book features distillers that are crafting these by hand from the distllery to to bottling the final product. The video above introduces a hands-on whiskey maker from a prohibition-era distillery in Brooklyn, a passionate mezcalero who doesn’t chicken out from an unusual recipe, and a Berlin-based artisan whose rum is taking the world’s best cocktail bars by storm. It’s a nice little video short with quality production value, and it makes me want to go find some of the booze featured here.