Table of Contents
About Gestalten
Some people might believe that the rise of the internet has caused many to forget about good old-fashioned books. However, that’s far from the truth.
Book sales continue to soar as we become more attached to our devices. Gestalten may be one reason for that. Their books are visual marvels that promote the creative endeavors of artists across the world.
You can purchase their books in many modern bookstores, and you’ll know it’s a Gestalten book because it’s the most eye-catching item in the shop. Their unique designs have earned them over 207k Instagram followers.
My Gestalten review will look at the company’s history, its principles, some of their most popular products and what you can expect from them, what customers think about their books, and more. This way, you can decide if this company is for you.
Overview of Gestalten
Gestalten is an international publishing house that focuses on the aesthetics of the print medium. Its mission centers around supporting artists and empowering authors to indulge in their artistry.
They publish a wide variety of books in different genres, although most revolve around the artistic process. The words “artistic” and “process” are both rather broad terms, as you’ll see if you keep reading this Gestalten review. You don’t necessarily need a paintbrush and canvas to be an artist.
The German brand has been revamping its focus over the last 20 years. They began as a publishing house for graphic designers but their catalog has greatly expanded as their stocks rose.
You’ll find books that analyze, celebrate, reinterpret, and document a wide variety of topics. Today, Gestalten books can be identified by the company’s pristine manufacturing and clean finishes rather than their content.
That being said, I’m not knocking what you’ll find in your average Gestalten book. Quite the opposite, actually. It’d be tough to find a publisher with as distinctive of a portfolio as this company.
They also have a subdivision called Little Gestalten that caters to younger readers. These books are more story-based and cartoonish than their regular releases, making them perfect gateway books for children who want to learn more about graphic design.
Gestalten established its own Creative Pool to build an online global community of artists. Members can share their artwork with other members and interact with them to sell their products, raise funds for prosocial causes, or just make friends who operate in similar creative spaces.
So if you’ve got a creative eye then you’ve probably picked up a few things you might like about this company. I’m going to tell you what else you’ll appreciate about them in the highlights section of my Gestalten review.
Highlights
- Publishes creative and captivating visual-oriented books
- Plants a tree for every book they sell
- Created a large online community of artists called the Creative Pool
- Free ground shipping within the United States
- International shipping options are available
Gestalten publishes books about tourism, culture, food, graphics, architecture, modern living, sustainability, escapism, and more. They also publish children’s books under their Little Gestalten line.
Excited to see what these books look like? Find out below as I will cover a few of their best sellers! (Pun intended).
Gestalten Books Review
A book’s value is largely determined by what it can give to its readers. Many people find that they’re at a loss for words when they describe their favorite book because it conjures such strong and complex emotions. And the best books can open up your view of the world, changing your perspective.
Gestalten’s books can change the way you look at space, design, and architecture with their unqiue and stunning designs. This portion of my Gestalten review will cover the books that stuck out to us the most from the company’s deep roster.
Gestalten Marvel by Design Review
Comic books are an inherently visual medium but there isn’t that much out there that explains how their designs communicate ideas that words can’t. They sit in a separate artistic space from picture books, novels, and even animation.
There are entire university courses dedicated to studying their craft, but you won’t need a bachelor’s degree to learn about them thanks to the Gestalten Marvel by Design. This book looks at the design elements that comics employ to make them such a singular artistic medium.
This product examines topics like coloring, lettering, graphics, panels, layout, and covers by way of the largest comics publisher in the world, Marvel. Marvel has dominated cinemas for the past decade and this new book by Liz Stinson will look at how they translated their comics to the big screen.
Stinson has over 10 years of expertise in the design industry and is a current executive producer at Eye on Design. So she’s well-versed in speaking about how graphic design influences other avenues of our world.
She covers the Marvel Method, the publisher’s in-house protocol for storytelling, and teaches creatives how they can apply that ethos to their own craft. So if you want to add some superheroic style to your work then pick up the Gestalten Marvel by Design for $69.
Gestalten The Ideal City Review
Have you ever thought about how strange modern cities are? I think that they evolved to suit our needs but most metropolises are too large to be sustainable. And smaller cities often lack the infrastructure to support their citizens.
I’m not a country bumpkin criticizing cities as being unfit for living, but Gestalten The Ideal City has us rethinking how we fit into our surrounding communities.
In this book, SPACE10 examines the barriers that we’ve erected in our cities and how they prevent us from achieving higher levels of functioning. They propose solutions both large and small from across the planet to answer one question: how can we improve our urban lives?
SPACE10 is a lab operated by Ikea that looks at how humans can optimize our lives in the wake of our changing planet. They use their years of research to present thrilling potential strategies that could help us as our population increases and our cities expands.
The Gestalten The Ideal City looks at modern living from angles including housing schemes, walking routes, infrastructure, and gentrification. It’s an optimistic book that proposes how we can improve ourselves by improving our living spaces.
You can chart your path through urbanization with this book for $50.
Gestalten She Surf Review
The next book I’ll look at in this Gestalten review is a book that surfers will want to put at the top of your reading list. The Gestalten She Surf book looks at one of the world’s most visually exciting sports by celebrating some of its greatest female athletes.
As you can probably tell by the title, this book chronicles female surfing’s rise to prominence and development since the late 1960s. Lauren L. Hill, the book’s author, is a surfer herself, and her expertise courses through the pages. She combines her fundamental understanding of the sport with an eco-feminist slant.
Thus, Gestalten She Surf is a fantastic read for anyone who wants to learn more about how women have shaped surfing over the past 60 years. It covers the sport’s history, its development in Polynesian communities, its innovations in recent years, and the athletes that are pushing it further in the modern era.
Through reading this book you’ll learn about how certain surfers, like India’s Ishita Malaviya, are inspiring their communities through their athletic achievements. You’ll also read firsthand accounts from Olympic-level surfers like Stephanie Gilmore, one of the greatest female surfers of all time.
Gestalten She Surf is for anybody with an interest in surfing, females in sport, or studying how gender, community, and athletics overlap. This fascinating read will cost you $50.
Gestalten Dreamscapes and Artificial Architecture Review
The final book in my Gestalten review covers the space between our minds, our hands, and our subconscious. It’s a visual art catalog that includes work from some of the best digital artists in the utopian sphere.
Gestalten Dreamscapes and Artificial Architecture posits an interesting thesis: what would our buildings look like if they didn’t have to play by the laws of nature? That doesn’t mean that this book is a fantastical head-trip. No, this book is a collection of interior and architectural designs that simply couldn’t exist in reality.
The pieces in the book use techniques like digital rendering and 3D art to present interesting possibilities. They all show a world that only exists in our heads. It’s a startling look at what our houses, buildings, living rooms, and other spaces would look like if they were on a serene plane of existence.
Certain pieces recall scenes like the streetcar passage from Hiyao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away while others have gothic energy. There are some novelty pieces for sure, and others are as kitschy as a Vladimir Tretchikoff painting.
What unites them is their calming undertones that suggest that this isn’t the way the world should be. But it showcases how technology allows artists to better express themselves through the use of physical space.
It’s the most unique coffee table book you’d likely ever seen. You can guarantee that you’re only ever a single page turn away from a conversation with guests by purchasing the Gestalten Dreamscapes and Artificial Architecture for $40.
Who Is Gestalten For?
Gestalten books are for people who place a heavy emphasis on their visual flair and their own unique style. Their books are big, bold, and brash, so they make for great additions to your coffee table.
These books are even better for people who want to more learn about visual design, architecture, interior design, or other topics. The brand’s books use intelligent image placement and expert insight to help readers understand complex topics. They’re a great way for people to comprehend abstract topics.
Gestalten Reviews: What Do Customers Think?
I wanted to take real customer reviews into account because books are rather difficult to critique unless you read them. You know how the old saying goes, you can’t judge a book by its cover.
The first place I pulled Gestalten review scores from was Amazon. The publisher sold many of their titles through that service so it was a hotbed for customer feedback. Here are the scores from the most popular books on Amazon that Gestalten published:
- Marvel By Design: 4.8/5 stars from 95 reviews
- The Ideal City: 4.5/5 stars over 32 ratings
- She Surf: 4.8/5 stars from 43 ratings
- Dreamscapes and Artificial Architecture: 4.7/5 stars over 35 reviews
Many customers said that Gestalten’s books were the perfect coffee table books. This is a compliment to the construction of the books. People said that they were tall and big, which is exactly what you want in books with a strong emphasis on visuals.
This is how one customer described Marvel By Design: “This is a dream come true for a graphic designer and comic book fan. Concise, clear, and simple overviews of each subject (even with a brief history of Marvel Comics), written by leaders in graphic design and the comic book industry.”
I found other similar comments on other Gestalten books. Their designs were deemed inspirational by many aspiring graphic designers. That’s what another user loved about their purchase of Dreamscapes and Artificial Architecture. They wrote: “Exactly the type of dreamy inspiration anyone would wish for when crafting a special space!”
In general, people were satisfied with the way that Gestalten books put their images front and center in models that made it easy to absorb the visual information. Their designs were so attractive that one reviewer called their Gestalten order the “Literally the best purchase I’ve ever made, so so cool and much bigger than I thought, adore it.”
People also praised Gestalten on the company’s Facebook page. Over 40 Facebook users gave the brand an average score of 4.3/5 stars. This is a unique company with breathtaking books that go beyond the printed word. From what I could see, customers overwhelmingly adored their orders from Gestalten.
Is Gestalten Legit?
I wasn’t able to dig up any dirt on Gestalten even if I tried, and believe us, I did. There wasn’t anything that made us guess or doubt this brand’s legitimacy.
Is Gestalten Worth It?
I think that Gestalten is one of the best brands for coffee table book lovers because of how well they understand the medium. They know how to broadcast the work of their writers and artists in visually interesting ways that do the content justice.
Thanks to this trusted brand, you can add a visually stunning book filled with captivating information to your library, all for an affordable price.
Gestalten Promotions & Discounts
There weren’t any discounts or promotions available at the time of writing this Gestalten review. You can sign up for the company’s email list to find out when they have new products in stock or when they offer new promotions.
Where to Buy Gestalten
Here are some of the places where you can purchase Gestalten’s books:
- On the brand’s website, www.gestalten.com
- Through online stores like Amazon
- At a bookstore or retailer in your area
FAQ
Who owns Gestalten?
Robert Klanten is the CEO and founder of Gestalten.
Does Gestalten ship internationally?
Gestalten ships internationally.
What is Gestalten’s Shipping Policy?
Gestalten offer free ground shipping to Germany and the United States. International orders are subject to shipping fees that the company calculates at the checkout stage, but orders over $60 will receive free shipping.
Shipping times will vary dependign on your location. See their FAQ page for a full breakdown.
What is Gestalten’s Return Policy?
You’ll have up to 14 days to return any Gestalten product. The company will issue you a full refund in the same payment method that you used to purchase the original item.
How to Contact Gestalten
I’ll wrap up this Gestalten review by telling you how you can contact the company if you have any more remaining questions. Use any of the methods below to get in touch:
- Phone: +49 (0)30 726 13200
- Email: [email protected]
- Fax: +49 (0)30 726 132222
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