Gestalten Verlag

The fine art of advertising is moving billions in currency and turns the masses into happy consumers. The not-so secret visual language behind successful ad-campaigns is now revealed by French blogger and undercover advertising expert Joe La Pompe. He selected 100 popular visual ideas and recurring subjects in the world of commercials-from symbols, great names from history or fiction, to themes in a variety of ways. This international survey offers insight as well as inspiration and allows the reader to better understand the power of visual seduction.

Street art has established itself as an integral part of the art world in the last few years. The crossover from subculture to high culture is illustrated by the recent attention that this work has been given by renowned institutions such as the Tate Modern and Fondation Cartier as well as by auction houses like Sotheby s. The topic is discussed in art magazines and the cultural pages of leading newspapers and is featured in the syllabuses of art and design schools. As interest soared, the need for information about street art grew. But, until now, there was no insightful view into the thought and work processes of a reticent, heterogeneous scene whose would-be members often don t even identify with the label. Comprised of interviews with 100 key players from around the world, Beyond the Street offers a comprehensive examination of street and urban art. Insiders Patrick Nguyen and Stuart Mackenzie question each of their subjects on every conceivable aspect of t he genre from the past to the future, from the artists ideals to their daily lives, from working in complete freedom to working in the art and commercial worlds. The thought-provoking range of answers make the 400-page book an incomparably extensive source of direct, unfiltered information. Beyond the Street features interviews with leading artists such as Shepard Fairey, Swoon, and Os Gemeos. The book also offers the views of representatives of the most important sales outlets for street art including Jeffrey Deitch and Jonathan LeVine Gallery. In addition, curators from auction houses such as Christie s and Phillips de Pury comment on the development of street art in a classical art context. Interviews with key commentators, collectors, and enthusiasts such as Martha Cooper, Wooster Collective, and Agnes B. provide further insight. Brought together, these separate and distinct perspectives create a uniquely authentic collective portrait of street and urban art that is capt ivating, informative, and entertaining. Each interview in Beyond the Street is richly illustrated with photographs of an inspiring collection of work. In addition to presenting outdoor work, the book also features the pieces that the artists have created for exhibitions and other indoor spaces. The commercial aspect of the street art movement is rigorously documented for the first time. Among the photographs featured are a number of images of the artists studios or the artists themselves at work, providing a rare glimpse into their methods and environments. Features: 12ozProphet. Aaron Rose. Agnès B. Akay. Alexandre Farto (a.k.a. Vhils). Alëxone Dizac. A.L.I.C.E. Gallery. Andipa Gallery. Anthony Lister. Bast. Beejoir. Black Rat Press Gallery. Blek le Rat. BLK / MRKT Gallery. Blu. Boris Hoppek. Boris Tellegen (a.k.a. Delta). Brad Downey. Carmichael Gallery. Christie s. Circleculture Gallery. Conor Harrington. Dan Witz. Dave Kinsey. David Choe. Deitch Projects. D*Face. Dolk. Doze Green. Dzine. Eine. Elbow-Toe. Ericailcane. Escif. Faile. Futura. Gaia. Galerie L.J. Galerie Magda Danysz. Galleria Patricia Armocida. Herakut. HuskMitNavn. Iguapop Gallery. Invader. Jonathan LeVine Gallery. José Parlá. JR. Judith Supine. Juxtapoz Magazine. kennardphillipps. Know Hope. Labrona. Lazarides Gallery. Logan Hicks. Lucas Price (a.k.a. Cyclops). Lucy McLauchlan. Mark Jenkins. Martha Cooper & Henry Chalfant. Matt Small. Miss Van. Mode 2. Momo. N2 Gallery. New Image Art. Nick Walker. Nuart Festival. Nuria Mora. Os Gêmeos. Other. Patti Astor. Pedro Alonzo. Phillips de Pury & Company. Retna. Ron English. Saber. Sam3. Shepard Fairey. Sixeart. Slinkachu. Sotheby s. Souled Out Studios. Speto. SpY. Stelios Faitakis. Stephan Doitschinoff (a.k.a. Calma). Steve Powers (a.k.a. ESPO). StolenSpace Gallery. Studio Cromie / FAME Festival. Subliminal Projects Gallery. Sweet Toof. Swoon. Tate Mode

Evolving from graffiti and street art, urban interventions are the next generation of artwork to hit public space. Using any and all of the components that make up urban and rural landscapes, these mostly spatial interventions bring art to the masses. They turn the street into a studio, laboratory, club, and gallery. Modified traffic signs, swings at bus stops, and images created out of sand or snow challenge us to rediscover our environment and interact with it in new ways. The work is an intelligent and critical commentary on the planning, use, and commercialization of public space. With a rich visual selection of projects and methods, Urban Interventions documents this new artistic approach to urban art that is currently making a profound mark on our contemporary visual language. The book shows the growing connections and interplay of this scene with art, architecture, performance, and installation. Propagators of urban intervention surprise and provoke with work in cities including New York and London, but also in countries such as China, Columbia, and Turkey. Everywhere the work appears it turns public spaces into individual experiences. Urban Interventions is the first book to document these very current, personal art projects in a comprehensive way.

The last few decades were dominated by the urban, the digital, and the sleek as well as a notable esteem for speed and consumption. Today, a growing countermovement is advocating for a sustainable and more responsible way of dealing with our environm ent and bringing nature back to our cities. My Green City celebrates this turnaround as well as the way of life and creativity of the designers, artists, architects, activists, and passionate laypeople involved. The book presents inspirational projec ts from around the world from urban farming initiatives and architectural visions that are changing our cities as a whole, to furniture and other everyday objects that can make our own streets and homes greener. Guerilla gardeners are decorating urba n eyesores with flowers. Glamping resorts offer hip, yet environmentally friendly vacations amid beautiful landscapes. Designers are creating projects, products, and works of art that use plants in a functional or aesthetic way or are perhaps just tr ying to get people to think differently. My Green City is an entertaining and socially relevant compilation for everyone who has an interest in a more responsible and environmentally friendly lifestyle. The book shows us how we can care for our plane t without falling into hopelessness or dwelling on a bad conscience. Its manifold visual examples and insightful descriptions make it clear that we can instead design our urban future in a way that is green, innovative, vibrant, and constructive.

Twenty-volume folios will never make a revolution. It s the little pocket pamphlets that are to be feared. Voltaire Social networks are dominating today s headlines, but they are not the only platforms that are radically changing the way we communica te. Creatives such as designers, photographers, artists, researchers, and poets are disseminating information about themselves and their favorite subjects not via predefined media such as Twitter or blogs, but through printed or other self-published projects so-called zines. Those who publish zines are mostly interested in sole authorship, namely that all components including text, images, layout, typography, production, and distribution are firmly in the hands of one person or a small group. At their best, the results convey a compelling and consistent atmosphere and push against the established creative grain in just the right way. They provoke with surprising and non-linear food for thought. In short, zines are advancing the evolution of today s media. With a cutting-edge selection of international examples, Behind the Zines introduces the broad range of zines that exists today. These include zines that function as a new kind of project-oriented portfolio to showcase a self-profile or document an exhibit. While some act as (pseudo) scientific treatises to call the reader s attention to a specific topic, others serve as playrooms for creatives to run riot and express themselves and communicate with each other in a space that is free from editorial restrictions. The book examines the key factors that distinguish various zines. It introduces projects in which the printing process significantly influences aesthetics or in which limited distribution to a small, clearly defined target audience becomes part of the overall concept. Behind the Zines not only documents outstanding work, but also shows how the self-image of those who make zines impacts the scene as a whole. Through interviews with people involved in zine product ion and distribution, the book sheds light on various strategies for this evolving media form.

After going through an eclectic, baroque, and iconic phase, today s design is again taking its visual cues from functionalism and pragmatism. Young graphic designers and illustrators are working in a way that is influenced by the principles of classi c modernism. They avoid excess or exaggeration to create enduring work of the highest quality. The Modernist is a collection of work in graphic design and illustration that is created with minimal intrusions. The deliberately limited palette of color s, tools, and geometric forms that it uses makes the work seem both contemporary and timeless. The book makes clear that today s work does not simply copy the classic design of the 1960s and 1970s. Rather, it seamlessly includes the best aspects of t he 1990s such as vector graphics and construction. Although computers do not dominate this design, they are clearly used as tools to play with elements that did not yet exist in the past and to merge the components and styles at hand in the best poss ible way. The Modernist documents the current trend of a reduced, matter-of-fact, and practical design approach. It presents examples of unobtrusive but effective design solutions that appear to have been created in a past era. Instead, the book show s that it is only our idealistic conception of modernism that gives earlier work attributes that it never actually had.

The digital age has fundamentally changed traditional notions of who we are and how we wish to be perceived. The music producer Chris Walla puts it this way: Confronted with our significantly more banal everyday life, we re measuring our actual selve s against our online selves with hopeful resignation. Doppelganger presents current trends in the depiction of human beings. In today s images and sculptures, personal identities are being intensified, altered, or created through the use of technique s such as deformation and construction/deconstruction as well as the obliteration of classical proportions, visual traditions, and what is generally considered beautiful and fashionable. The book shows permutations of the outer human shell created wi th costumes and masks as well as photo-technical and artistic manipulation. These take their visual cues from such diverse aesthetics as Dada, surrealism, high tech, cutting-edge fashion design, and the folklore of other cultures. Masquerades and art ificial characters are used imaginatively to enhance and obscure true identities. With examples ranging from the intimate to the radical, Doppelganger explores how many or how few effects the depiction of a person can take in order to function as suc h. In doing so, the book shows that the unique visual appearances being created today often reveal more about the identities of their subjects and creators than their real faces ever could.

One could argue that today s most innovative street artists come from Latin America. The unique visual styles of Os Gemeos, Bastardilla, Vitché, Saner, Jorge Rodriguez Gerada, and others are not only highly respected in the international art scene, b ut their work has also been exhibited at renowned museums including the Tate Modern and Fondation Cartier. Nuevo Mundo is the first book to provide a comprehensive documentation of current street art in Latin America by exploring the full spectrum of regional scenes in their impressive diversity. The book is structured into chapters that introduce work from Argentina, Brazil, Central America, Chile, Columbia, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Nuevo Mundo features not only established artists from Latin America, but also promising new talents. In addition to inspiring images, the book s informed texts describe the history and context of the region as a whole and also give insight into each scene. The explosive mi xture of indigenous cultures, local folklore, and the history of European colonization has created a unique visual style. The high regard in which these young street artists are now held around the world is a sign of the new self-confidence of an ent ire continent.

A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which Humanity is always landing. Oscar Wilde The cities in which we live today are unfortunately not the cities that we need for a hu mane and sustainable tomorrow. Societies and politicians are desperately looking for solutions and ideas for the urban areas of the future. That is why the development and discussion of utopias are next to sustainability the most current topics in co ntemporary architecture. We have learned from the 1960s and 1970s that utopian visions are one of the most important catalysts for fundamental change. Modern wind farms for generating energy, for example, were initially contemplated at that time and are now permanent fixtures in our landscapes. Utopia Forever is a collection of current projects and concepts from architecture, city planning, urbanism, and art that point beyond the restrictions of the factual to unleash the potential of creative v isions. In contrast to the largely ideal-theoretic approaches of the past, today s utopias take the necessity for societal changes into account. The projects in this book explore how current challenges for architecture, mobility, and energy as well a s the logistics of food consumption and waste removal can be met. Whether created by established architects and artists or new talents, the projects in Utopia Forever are radically shaping our notions of life in the future.

The new edition of The Design Hotels Book is a comprehensive overview of the most original design hotels worldwide. By presenting 200 spectacular hotels, including 47 properties that are new for 2011, the book provides insight into trends and develo pments in hospitality design. With its images of striking architecture and interior design, this opulent hardcover brings the experience of staying in a Design Hotels property to life.

After the visual excesses of the first decade of the new millennium, there now appears to be a distinct demand for clear and rational, yet forward-thinking, design. Seamlessly melding aesthetics, functionality, and quality while simultaneously avoiding excess has been a foundation of Japanese handicraft for hundreds of years. Creatives from Japan are masters at skillfully combining rational functionality with a contemporary sense of design in a way that seems effortless and even playful. Sublime is a comprehensive collection of the relevant trends in Japanese design that reveals the country s overall design aesthetic. The book presents architecture, interiors, and products that are created with an approach that is both rational and visionary. The results of this striking combination often appear futuristic and somehow transcendent. Japanese architecture is adept at bringing inner and outer areas of buildings together harmoniously. Even the smallest rooms can seem surprisingly spacious. Sublime explores the impact of the interplay between old-style handicraft and modern technology as well as traditional and high-tech materials on Japanese design. It features work by established names such as Naoto Fukasawa, Tokujin Yoshioka, Kengo Kuma, and Nendo, and introduces talent from a new generation that has found its own design style somewhere between a traditional Japanese approach and modern or post-modern influences. As the book clearly shows, a Japanese design philosophy based on local traditions has not only survived a general trend toward Westernization, but it is also being translated into outstanding examples of contemporary visual culture around the world.

The young, internationally acclaimed artist Vhils creates technically skilled, contemporary portraits. Instead of only adding paint or other materials onto surfaces, he also carves, drills, scratches, rips, or blasts his images out of walls. With nothing less than archeological meticulousness, he penetrates through countless layers of posters, dirt, and plaster to set free the portraits hidden in urban spaces. Alexandre Farto, alias Vhils, started developing his unusual style, which would be impossible without his outstanding handicraft and manual skill, as a graffiti artist on the streets of his Portuguese homeland at the tender age of 13. The end of a fascist dictatorship there in the 1970s led to a chaotic visual layering of socialist propaganda posters with new western European and American advertising that became fertile ground for his emerging style. Vhils´s almost sculptural art can be seen as a productive form of destruction figures are blasted from the plaster of walls, silhouettes carved from metal, or unsettlingly poetic portraits created using a chisel and a hammer. Vhils depicts the multiple facets of humans as social beings by using their surroundings, which can then further evolve by being blurred and painted over and maybe eventually forgotten. This monograph is the most extensive collection of his personal and commissioned work to date, much of which is published here for the first time. The introduction is written by Marc and Sara Schiller of Wooster Collective.

Cutting-edge graphic work from the Arab world and Iran that is emblematic of the cultural emancipation of this entire area.

A new visual language that is both informative and entertaining is emerging at the nexus of information graphics, illustration, and tactile design. More and more data is being collected. We can access ever more information at any time and from any place. The fundamental challenge now is how to extract the most valuable news, the most surprising findings, and the most relevant stories from the flood of information that is available to us. A new generation of designers, illustrators, and data journalists is addressing this challenge head on. They are developing a variety of new visual forms to depict information that can be classified as visual storytelling. The main idea behind visual storytelling is to take familiar image contexts and use them in a new way. By penetrating meaning and creating associations, abstract correlations can be visualized in a manner that is both easy to understand and aesthetically innovative. Today, visual storytelling is being used intensively in newspapers, magazines, websites, advertising, business reports, and museums. With its collection of inspiring, insightful, interactive, and entertaining examples, the book Visual Storytelling reveals how the contextualization of information is pushing the envelope of today's design and aesthetics.

To eat in a way that is better, more delicious, more aesthetic, and more passionate is the collective goal of an international scene comprised of independent producers, shops, restaurants, activists, designers, and event managers. Eating is so much more than merely fulfilling a fundamental bodily need. Eating appeals to all of our senses; it boosts our well-being on every level. Now, more than ever, it is an expression of our mindset, identity, spirit, and culture. Around the world, a scene of young food entrepreneurs is developing a trend that brings together creatives, tradespeople, and activists. This scene aspires to deal with both the food that we need, and the food that we enjoy, in more creative, more sensuous, and more responsible ways. It is united by a passion for making food an experience as well as by a high appreciation for the quality, origin, aesthetics, and workmanship of food. Delicate introduces the protagonists at the forefront of this current movement along with the projects, places, and products associated with them. The book documents a wide spectrum from small brewers, coffee roasters, and chocolate-makers to artists, event managers, and creators of zines. vent concepts are shown that use food to facilitate communication and social interaction in tried and true, as well as surprising new ways. Locations such as shops, markets, and restaurants become meeting places for everyone who would like to learn, participate, sample, and enjoy. The experimental projects featured in Delicate are blazing trails for a better understanding of nourishment and a new passion for food.

The work and methods of illustrators from around the world reveal the scope of this creative discipline. In recent years, illustration has evolved from a purely service-oriented trade to an expressive, poetic, and esteemed voice in contemporary visual culture. Today it continues to burgeon as a creative discipline--especially in its more artistic forms. Editorial design increasingly uses illustration in place of photography because it depicts and enriches content in a way that offers an expanded dimension of communication. ...