High Touch: Tactile Design and Visual Explorations

by Robert Klanten (Editor), M. Hubner (Editor)

Today’s visual culture is shaped by a vast wealth of influences from diverse styles, cultures, and eras. Handcrafts including crochet, papercraft, and the design of costumes and masks are being melded with the techniques of more traditional art forms such as installation, sculpture, collage, photography, and illustration. A new visual language is currently being formed out of the skillful and unusual combination of creative styles, as well as the use of an expanded range of materials and techniques. One of the most striking aspects of today’s visual culture is its handcrafted quality. The recent work of many creatives is characterized by craftsmanship and an intensive, even laborious exploration of the featured techniques, materials, or styles. High touch is a term used in design theory to describe an accessible, human visuality. The book High Touch is a compilation of current work that is broadening and enriching this definition in a contemporary way. It presents a rich selection of innovative, often handmade design created with the full spectrum of materials and stylistic devices in existence today―all of which also strive to expand this palette of visual possibilities in a meaningful way.

208 pages, Hardcover

First published September 25, 2012

About the author

Robert Klanten has been a key figure in the global creative industry for more than a quarter of a century, helping to reimagine the way we approach publishing. He has driven over 800 publications and commercial projects.
Robert is the CEO of gestalten, the company he founded in 1995. Under his leadership, gestalten has established itself as a pillar in the field of contemporary visual culture, design and architecture, by immersing its readers in creative landscapes, cultures, people and art. gestalten regularly collaborates with the biggest names in the creative world and is known and loved by millions around the globe for its iconic books.
He has shown how creativity has no limits in the digital age: through inspiration, inclusivity and promoting understanding; and by connecting the global and the local through storytelling.