Gestalten is an independent publishing house based in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

History

Gestalten was established by three friends: Robert Klanten, Markus Hollmann-Loges and Andreas Peyerl, who all moved to Berlin in the early 1990s.JULIA LÖHR, They rapidly came into contact with the Berlin techno and rave scene, initially designing flyers,

posters A poster is a large sheet that is placed either on a public space to promote something or on a wall as decoration. Typically, posters include both textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or wholly text. ...

and record covers for music labels and events such as the Love Parade. In 1994, they conceived a book about techno-art, documenting the visual aspects of

technoculture Technoculture is a neologism that is not in standard dictionaries but that has some popularity in academia, popularized by editors Constance Penley and Andrew Ross in a book of essays bearing that title. It refers to the interactions between, and po ...

. In order to gauge the market interest, they started to produce order cards, to be distributed through techno magazines. They received over 1000 orders, through which they were able to obtain a loan, which facilitated the production and release of their first book, The Localizer 1.0. This led to the foundation of Die Gestalten publishing house in 1995. The name was later changed to ''gestalten''. The word means to shape, or to create in German. Gestalten has been led solely by Robert Klanten since the departure of his co-founders Markus Hollmann-Loges and Andreas Peyerl in 2008. The company remains independent, with investor MairDumont and Klanten holding 50% of the shares each.

Publishing

Gestalten's focus shifted away from music towards books showcasing

graphic design Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art whose activity consists in projecting visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdiscipli ...

in 1998. The following years continued this trend, with the majority of books covering design and art themes as well as publishing books about

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

food culture The sociology of food is the study of food as it relates to the history, progression, and future development of society, encompassing its production, preparation, consumption, and distribution, its medical, ritual, spiritual, ethical and cultura ...

travel Travel is the movement of people between distant geographical locations. Travel can be done by foot, bicycle, automobile, train, boat, bus, airplane, ship or other means, with or without luggage, and can be one way or round trip. Travel c ...

motorbikes A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruising, ...

and bicycles. Since its conception, the publishing house has focused on the international market, publishing in English for a global audience.

Collaborations

Gestalten has partnered with niche organizations such as outdoor brand Parks Project, architecture website ArchDaily, and lifestyle magazine

Kinfolk The general meaning of the term kinfolk is "relatives, family". Kinfolk may also refer to: * ''Kinfolk'' (album), a 2007 hip hop album by Ali & Gipp * " Kinfolks", a 2019 song by American country music singer Sam Hunt * Kinfolk Kia Shine (born 19 ...

. The company has also collaborated with global brands including Marvel and Monocle, as well as leading creatives such as

Dieter Rams Dieter Rams (born 20 May 1932) is a German industrial designer and retired academic who is closely associated with the consumer products company Braun, the furniture company Vitsœ, and the functionalist school of industrial design. His unobtr ...

References

{{reflist

External links

Official website
German companies established in 1995 Companies based in Berlin Publishing companies of Germany Book publishing companies of Germany