Gestalten.tv

The Visualized Conference, which just took place in New York last week, explored the new era of visual communication at the intersection of complex knowledge, visual storytelling and aesthetic design. Having become a proud sponsor of this conference, Gestalten.tv had the great opportunity to interview the speakers live and report the conference on-site. Including Sven Ehmann, our creative director, all the speakers were selected creative leaders as well as information enthusiastics. They inspired us on combining both creative and analytical sides of the brain while designing, presenting and interacting with data. In this video, we have interviewed: Amber Case, Sha Hwang, Peter Crnokrak, Michael Migurski, Benjamin Wiederkehr and Kim Rees.

The Brazilian artist Stephan Doitschinoff has developed a unique and deeply symbolic visual language comprising iconoclastic and folkloric elements. His paintings, sculptures, installations and public performances provide glimpses into another political and philosophical dimension, while his recently published second monograph CRAS includes impressive close-ups that capture the detail and complexity of his new work as well as a specially developed series of illuminated texts. We met him at Heri, Hodie, Cras, his first solo show in Berlin, which features canvases, drawings, multiples and a limited edition ceramic sculpture incorporated into a mixed-media installation.

The suggestion that “tattoos are not just for sailors any more” is a familiar one. It might be surprising to learn, then, that the popular media has been reporting the arrival of tattooing in high society for nearly one hundred years. To celebrate the release of “Forever: The New Tattoo”, Gestalten hosted an evening of informative and entertaining talks by renowned tattoo artists Alex Binnie and Duncan X, as well as by heavily tattooed art historian Matt Lodder, author of the book’s preface. Further tattoo protagonists, namely Jon John, Liam Sparkes and Zoe Binnie, attended the event at the Gestalten Space in Berlin and gave us additional insight.

A new tattoo underground has emerged in recently years and their cutting-edge visuals go far beyond the tattoo mainstream. Visual artist Alex Binnie is a legend within the international tattoo scene and his Into You studio that he’s been running for 19 years in East London continues to foster countless talents and innovators including Curly, Thomas Hooper, Nick Schonberger and Duncan X to name but a few—all featured in Gestalten’s new Forever: The New Tattoo book. We met Duncan and Alex in London to talk about the current mass appeal of tattoos, its uniqueness as an art form and the ”holy trinity“ of tattooing styles.

In order to understand the cross-genre works of the New York-based artist Sebastian Errazuriz, take a glimpse into his Brooklyn studio. A piano spontaneously hangs from the the ceiling intermingling with Jesus sculptures on the wall. Errazuriz’s interest towards the fusion of functionality and artistic freedom spurs him to explain the world in new creative spheres. Leading up to the launch of the artist's first monograph The Journey of Sebastian Errazuriz and his solo show at Rove Gallery at this year’s London Design Festival, Gestalten.tv has a special feature on the the Chilean artist. He reveals the secrets to his international success, his insatiable aspiration for persistent creativity, and the challenges he faces while pushing his oeuvre to the next level.

Jim Meehan is the leading figure of today’s cocktail culture. Das geheime Cocktail-Buch, the German-language edition of Meehan’s PDT Cocktail Book, takes you behind the counter of Meehan’s PDT Bar in New York and shares more than 300 classic and offbeat cocktail recipes as well as Meehan’s comprehensive knowledge about spirits, bar accessories, glasses, appliances, techniques, and everything else involved in skilled mixology. Gestalten.tv met Meehan at PDT Bar, where he revealed what makes Das geheime Cocktail-Buch so special and how his fruitful collaboraton with illustrator Chris Gall came to be.

Jim Meehan ist der Protagonist der aktuellen Cocktailkultur. Sein Buch nimmt uns mit hinter den Tresen seiner New Yorker PDT-Bar und teilt mit mehr als 300 Rezepten klassischer wie ausgefallener Cocktails sein umfassendes Wissen über Spirituosen, Zubehör, Gläser, Gerätschaften, Techniken und alles, was zum Mixen dazugehört. Gestalten.tv traf ihn eben dort, wo er unter anderem verrät, was sein Das geheime Cocktail-Buch so besonders macht und wie es zur kongenialen Zusammenarbeit mit dem Illustrator Chris Gall kam, der das Werk im Comic-Noir-Stil bebildert hat.

Deutschland verstehen not only tells of Prussians and Goethe, but also of Love Parade and Oktoberfest. It draws the family tree of the Red Army Faction, examines Germany's relationship to nuclear power, and looks at the impact of the country’s business activities around the world; it compares apples with potatoes and the Federal Republic of Germany with the former GDR. The result: infotainment at the highest level. Deutschland verstehen bietet eine kurzweilige Bildungsreise durch unser Land. Die im Buch versammelten Schaubilder zeigen Kanzleramt, Reichstag und Gorch Fock von innen und erzählen von Preußen, Goethe, Kernkraftwerken, Loveparade und Oktoberfest. Sie zeichnen Stammbäume der RAF und der Deutschland AG; vergleichen Äpfel mit Kartoffeln, BRD mit DDR und Stefan Raab mit Thomas Gottschalk. Mit Infotainment auf höchstem Niveau ist dieser neuartige Atlas DAS Wimmelbuch für Erwachsene.

Frank Höhne brought us into his home and studio space in Berlin to show how (and why) he works as an illustrator. Pen in hand, Höhne works quickly, intuitively, and spontaneously, rarely with a plan, and always with his quirky and easygoing sense of humor. Joy, or "Bock," as it’s said colloquially in German, is an important aspect of life and work for Höhne—something which he hilariously describes in his first monograph, "The Book of Bock." It's this combination of idiosyncratic humor, refreshingly childlike spontaneity, and down-to-earth nature that has allowed Höhne to quickly establish himself as one of Germany’s leading illustrators, with clients including BMW Mini, Nike, Aveda, as well as a broad range of German newspapers and magazines. Höhne's first monograph, "The Book of Bock," is now avaialbe from Gestalten: http://shop.gestalten.com/book-of-bock.html Höhne is also showcasing illustrations from "The Book of Bock" in addition to new works at "Bockumenta 1," his solo-exhibition at Gestalten Space, which is running from August 9th to September 16th, 2012: www.gestalten.com/event/bockumenta-1

Information designers, editors, illustrators, animators, and journalists came together at Gestalten Space in Berlin on July 2nd and 3rd for a two-day "Infographic Thinking" workshop, the latest in a series of workshops hosted by Gestalten. Francesco Franchi, one of the masters of information design and the much-awarded art director of IL – Intelligence in Lifestyle, led the workshop and guided the attendees through the left-and-right-brained process of interpreting, contextualizing, and visually representing information — a process which is as much journalism and storytelling as it is design. The attendees learned by doing, working in groups to produce insightful and informative visual content of their own, with Franchi's invaluable expertise at their disposal.

Although the way we read may change, our passion for the written word is left unaffected by format. Who would know better than NYC-based editor, writer, and consultant Andrew Losowksy, whom we met at the offices of The Huffington Post, where he is Books Editor. Losowksy has conceived and contributed to numerous books, including Gestalten's Turning Pages and Visual Storytelling, as well as We Love Magazines and We Make Magazines. In our Gestalten.tv feature, Losowsky talks about the various methods of storytelling in the digital age and why hitting the right note on the web doesn't always translate into a compelling print product (and vice versa).

As KLUB7, Dani Daphne, Diskorobot, Mike Okay, Kid Cash, Lowskii, and Otto Baum have made a name for themselves with their street art as well as the murals, customizations, and illustrations which they create on various surfaces. Since its inception over 10 years ago, the Berlin-based collective has progressively and continuously expanded its oeuvre. In the wake of their exhibition opening at Gestalten Space, Gestalten.tv met them to discuss the joy of spontaneous artistic interactions and the evolution of graffiti.

As founder of the legendary Silicon Valley-based design company IDEO and current director of the Smithonian Institution's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in NYC, Bill Moggridge surely knows a thing or two about the value, function and importance of design. So Gestalten.tv met him who designed the first laptop ever to realize why today's increasing services are a design opportunity, to discover the richness of variety of the Cooper-Hewitt's historical collection and to learn why design in the US still needs to get more recognition.

For Tehran-born and Amsterdam-based designer Reza Abedini Graphic Design is not merely a visual art form but "a value". Combining traditional and contemporary types in his own body of work -logos, posters, corporate identities and three-dimensional designs- for more than 20 years. As a professor he is also teaching Graphic Design. In our Gestalten.tv interview feature he gives insight into the merits of Arabesque 2: Graphic Design from the Arab and Persian World, why there is a "useless distance between the letters" in Western printing and how to find one's own visual identity these days.

The artist Tessa Farmer creates magical worlds ruled by minuscule fairy skeletons, who are not just mischievous but downright evil. Her striking sculptures, which are made from insects, animal taxidermy, and plant roots, depict narratives that are no doubt dark and infused with maliciousness, yet their savagery is, for Farmer, an expression of a raw survival instinct inherent in us all. We met Tessa Farmer in London while she was preparing an exhibit for Danielle Arnaud Contemporary Art, and spoke with her about her process, why she isn’t interested in beauty, and what materials she can find on eBay these days—or in a canal by her house for that matter.