Gestalten.tv

While working for O.M.A. Rotterdam, FACE Design New York and David Chipperfield Architects, Berlin-based architect Christiane Sauer carved out a niche in researching innovative materials and applying them in unconventional ways in the industry.Now with her own studio formade and a new book, Gestalten's "Made Of..." – an inspirational and application-oriented reference for those seeking to expand their design palettes with cutting-edge developments – Sauer shares with us a few of her utmost secrets. What's the matter? Where does it come from? And what is good for?

Born to opera singer-parents off Italy's Adriatic coast, director Floria Sigismondi transfused an inherited love of music into crafting rich, deeply dark music videos for the likes of Sigur Ros, David Bowie, Björk and Leonard Cohen. Now Sigismondi brings this ethos to the big screen: The Runaways, about the eponymous 70s, Joan Jett-fronted girl band, is the director's first full-length feature and debuted in the US last month to much critical acclaim.  Though Runaways departs from Sigismondi's trademark hyper-surrealistic style, the film is exemplary of her range and sheer multi-disciplinary brilliance. In Gestalten.tv's latest podcast, we meet up with the artist in New York just hours before her New York premiere.

Artist Julius von Bismarck reached infamy with his spectacular mass media weapon, The Image Fulgurator, but his objects, installations and urban interventions defy snappy simplification. Part nerd, pop star, scientist and activist all rolled up into an intimidating 26-year-old package, the Berlin-based student at Olafur Eliasson's Institute of Space Experiments is more interested in "perception" and innovation designed to blow your mind away. We play point-and-shoot with von Bismarck in Gestalten.tv's latest podcast.

Whether providing haunting visuals for Moderat or live VJing at the Louis Vuitton store opening in Paris with Pharrell, Pfadfinderei have done for visuals what DJs did to music. Add to that a knack for font design and a campy sense of humor, and you have one of Berlin's brightest stars in the design field. Watch Gestalten.tv's latest podcast to find out more about the group and just what makes their work so damn bright.

You'd never guess it, but these big toys for big boys were at the height of their design during the 1970s – by sheer chance. Mechanics and team members – not designers or marketing strategists – adorned racecars with all of those flashy stripes, logos, numbers and colors prevalent at any Formula 1 race today. After compiling more than 100 examples of sleek cars from this glory age, Go Faster-author Sven Völker takes us for a joy ride at the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart for a whip-fast lesson in competitive war paint, visual anarchy and piggish car designs.

Firmly planted in that place where interior design, product design and media intersect, Ilse Crawford runs Studio Ilse with the personal mantra that "the most important space are the six centimeters around you." Or, as The New York Times once put it, "her work doesn’t have a signature style, but a signature feeling: emotional and deeply rooted to the place". Dive into her world of democratic design and contagiousness of ideas in Gestalten.tv's latest podcast interview, shot in Crawford's homebase of London.

The visualization of data is the graphic designer's core business. For illustrator, graphic designer and art director Christoph Niemann – man behind the überpopular blog for The New York Times and numerous The New Yorker covers – it's daily business. Find out how Christoph Niemann tackles some of today's trickiest dilemmas – what does one do with that bottom arm while spooning? – in exactly the kind of humorous off-color ways that make him an ace in our latest Gestalten.tv interview.

In the verdant garden of illustration and art, many a different species thrive on the grounds. Some flourish in obscurity and some worship the sun. Every now and then you will find a plant of extraordinary beauty and resilience, marrying the magic and the real, the pop and the folk, the client's wish and its own artistic ambition. Illustrator and "Flowerhead" author Olaf Hajek is one such rare example. Watch him come into full bloom in our latest Gestalten.tv feature.

The site-specific temporary architecture, innovative performances and constructive interference in the urban environment by Berlin duo Hoefner and Sachs straddle the line between art and architecture. With a subversive and humorous approach, they have reinvented the vocabulary of urban intervention and ironic commentary of modern city planning. Here, the pair talks to us about the kind of irreverent topics that make us love them--bees, architecture and test driving a car filled with water.

In the arena of today's visual culture it is as equally challenging to entertain audiences as it is to continually reach new milestones. Alex Mclean, Nat Hunter and Fred Deakin of the pioneering London-based design agency Airside have firmly stayed on the top of the game for more than ten years now–having among others created campaigns for brands such as Coca-Cola, Greenpeace, MTV, Panasonic and Sony, plus visual identities and web design for the Serpentine Gallery, White Cube and the Pet Shop Boys. In our latest podcast, the founding members and creative minds unlock the secret to their innovation and entrepreneurial success–and explain why their inimitable style and profound skills are more wide-ranging and vital today than ever before.

How to introduce one of the most influential designers of the 20th century -- one whose clear visual language has not only defined product design for decades, but also our fundamental understanding of design's potential and function? We're guessing the "Less and More" exhibition at London's Design Museum, accompanying book published by Gestalten and this video podcast interview is a good start.

It's a bird... it's a cow...it's a lawyer... no, it's Nils Holger Moorman! The Bavaria-based designer and producer of top-notch minimalist furniture and rustic, arcadian interior designs has carved out a niche all his own. To prove this, we neither have to highlight how he's outgunned Ikea nor how he and his team of creatives have won more awards than other people warm meals. We only kindly ask you to watch how Nils keeps it real in an unreal surrounding, i.e. the international design scene and not the mountains.

Postlerferguson is a London-based product, graphic and interaction design firm. Founded in 2007 by Ian Ferguson and Martin Postler after their graduation from the RCA, the company explores issues of technology, culture and economics through design strategies based on thorough research. Their design approach is very systematic, almost scientific, and aims at creating a frame in which mistakes can happen. Asking questions that stoke new ones, Postlerferguson reaches curious conclusions to topics like sustainability and, most noticeably, the delicate matter of weapons and their undeniable aesthetic appeal. High time for us to, well, shoot the duo themselves in their studio.

With a trademark portraiture style and mischievous eye, Dazed and Confused-founder Rankin enjoys a reputation as one of the world's leading photographers. So who would dare destroy him? For the charity project and book, "Destroy Rankin," former subjects -- including Basement Jaxx, Beck, Jarvis Cocker, U2, Ian Brown, Kylie Minogue, Little Boots and Marianne Faithfull -- were given the opportunity to revamp their respective photographs into something both deeply personal and reflective of their artistic style. The result is an au courant body of collaborative art ranging from paintings and drawings to collage. We met Rankin in his London studio to learn about the powerful pairing of music and iconic imagery.

Oh, you've seen her: from New York's P.S. 1 and Deitch Projects to Hui No'eau on Maui and Berlin's gritty street corners. Notorious for constructing a giant floating raft and sailing it down river (twice!), she is neither a pirate nor a street artist. And even if her real name is known these days, that is also neither here nor there. Join us as we swing by Berlin's Urban Art Info Gallery to see what else the ineffable Swoon has got up her sleeve in Gestalten.tv's latest interview."