Anton Stankowski
Joining paths, 1928
Ink, 29.7 x 21 cm |
The
Design Theory
Even though Stankowski avoided teaching, with the exception of a guest
professorship at the HfG Ulm, he still had more students than some university
professors. At a young age — not yet 25 — he conceived his
Gestaltungsfibel, or design primer, which served as the basis for his
life’s work. The primer made it clear that he was always concerned
with clear information in the design, with the visualization of content
that could not be depicted through conventional means. Here, Stankowski
is one of the great pioneers of the early twentieth century, who began
to regard design through primarily functional, not just artistic, criteria.
What nowadays seems a matter of course to us was, at that time, hardly
conceivable. Each product designed was supposed to be unique, not part
of a family of products. It was the systematic designers like Stankowski
who first began in the mid-1920s, to deal with the problem of serial and
programmatic design. While still a student, he created his first unified
advertising tools. Stankowski did not consider himself a pioneer, but
as practical. For him, design was a process, and at the beginning of every
design process was not invention, but a critical exploration of the real
givens. The quality of the work was seen in his ability to find a common
trait shared by all of the different elements. This holistic type of thinking
made him one of the fathers of corporate design.
The Design Theory
Curator: Peter von Kornatzki
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Anton Stankowski
Anti-war, 1927
28.8 x 22 cm
Photo collage/Print
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Anton Stankowski
Perspective, 1928
29.4 x 20.7 cm
Ink on paper
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Anton Stankowski
Experience, See,
and Write
1939, 29.7 x 20.8 cm,
Tempera/ink on paper
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Anton Stankowski
Quantity - Quality, 1931
25.8 x 18.3 cm
Ink on paper
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