GUTE FORM
The Council of Industrial Design
The Council of Industrial Design: GUTE FORM. London: The Design Centre with the Rat für Formgebung in Darmstadt, 1965. Original edition. Parallel text in English and German. Square quarto. Perfect bound thick printed wrappers. Unpaginated. 47 black and white images. Exhibition catalog and checklist of 122 items. Exhibition preview invitation laid in. Catalog designed by Herbert Wolfgang Kapitzki. Wrappers faintly worn, but a nearly fine copy.
8.25 x 8.25 exhibition catalog—and preview invitation—featuring 47 black and white images and a checklist of the 122 items selected by the Rat für Formgebung [German Design Council] to represent the pinnacle of German technical design, circa 1965. To this end catalog designer Herbert Wolfgang Kapitzki leads off with a full-page image of a Porsche 911.
Includes work by Erich Slany, Tomas Maldonado, Gui Bonsiepe, Rudolf Scharfenberg, Norbert Schlagheck, Sartorious Design, Zeiss Design, Braun Design, Herbert Schultes, Klaus Fleischmann, Willy Herold, Bernhard Jablonski, Stig Lindberg, Norbert Linke, Gerhard Dietrich, Peter Heinz Meyer, Dieter Oestereich, Olympia Design, Siemens Design, AEG Design, Gunter Füchs, Hans Gugelot, Herbert Lindinger, Helmut Müller-Kühn, Carl Wilhelm Voltz, and many others.
The German Design Council [Rat für Formgebung] was founded in 1953 in direct response to criticism of how German postwar products were represented at the 1949 New York Export Fair. This Council was established in 1953 with the explicit task of supporting the German economy via the economic and cultural factors of design. The Council actively participated in exhibitions, competitions, conferences, publications and strategic discussions. The Council hired Egon Eiermann to design the German exhibition at the tenth Milan Triennale in 1957.
Founding member organizations include General Electric Company, Gebr. Brüne, Heinrich Habig Aktiengesellschaft, Peill & Putzler Glashüttenwerke GmbH, State Porcelain Manufactory Nymphenburg, Siemens-Schuckert Aktiengesellschaft, Siemens & Halske Aktiengesellschaft, Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik, Federal Association of German Industry, and Central Association of Electrical Engineering Industry.