On Jan 29, 2014, at 2:49 PM, Don Norman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> next to Dieter Rams and across from Thomas Herzog
Damn. What would I have to do to get the three of you over to my house some night?
> A new name: *Gestaltung* And a new label for
> those of us who practice Gestaltung: We are *Gestalters*. (In German, the
> plural of Gestalter is Gestalterin, but we, after all, are starting fresh.)
> The fact that people do not know the meaning of either Gestaltung or
> Gestalter is a virtue: we can decide to make it mean whatever we wish. It
> is a chance to start over.
It might have less baggage than "design" and "designer" but it would hardly be the proverbial blank slate.
My knowledge of German is in the less-than-minimal range but, of course, "gestalt" is familiar. My understanding is that it means something like "form" or "shape" but focussed on the whole and on the idea of seeing a whole before the parts. I don't know if a German speaker would assume that physical form or shape would be assumed.
People who went to art school might assume a strong connection to gestalt theory and think that a slightly-varying list of principles (Kepes' version was unity, proximity, repetition, continuance, and closure) would dominate--especially the response to visual implication. (I'm sure there's a proper term that I don't know but by "visual implication," I mean stuff like implying a line by establishing a very few points, a triangle by showing three points, etc.)
Psych people might assume some other stuff based on ideas from Frankfurt, Esalen, etc. Maybe I could meet you, Herzog, and Rams in a hot tub in Big Sur to discuss that.
Gunnar the graphic gestalter
Gunnar Swanson
East Carolina University
graphic design program
http://www.ecu.edu/cs-cfac/soad/graphic/index.cfm
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Gunnar Swanson Design Office
1901 East 6th Street
Greenville NC 27858
USA
http://www.gunnarswanson.com
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+1 252 258-7006
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