The Making of Design
1957 – Jupp Ernst, Director of the Werkkunstschule in Kassel,museum directors Willem Sandberg and Curt Schweicher, and former memberof the Bauhaus Wilhelm Wagenfeld found form magazine. FriedrichMiddelhauve brings out the “International Revue“ as the form’s subtitlethen read, in his Westdeutscher Verlag publishing company, based inOpladen. form started out as a wide-ranging cultural magazine: A pencildrawing by Le Corbusiers and a photo of a Rietveld chair adorned thecover of the first edition. The layout was devised by the Müller/ Blaséstudio, and graphic artist Karl Oskar Blase designed almost all thecovers through 1968. The magazine came out on a quarterly basis andfocused on topics relating to art, architecture and industrial design.Ballet and album reviews were just as much at home in it as were poetryand design manifestoes. 1962 – the later editor-in-chief Karlheinz Krug, a graduate ofthe renowned Ulm design academy, became head of the editorial desk atthe magazine. The imprint of form 19 lists him for the first time.Karlheinz Krug was to remain editor-in-chief until the of 1998, was amajor influence on the magazine, and acted as co-chief editor until theend of 2001. 1966 – marked the first relaunch of form: issue 33 first bearsthe subtitle “magazine for design”. The issue also presented aninternational advisory council, including, among others, WalterGropius, Marcel Breuer, Sigfried Giedion, Johannes Itten, RichardBuckminster Fuller and Max Bill. The latter stated in the issue that“we need an independent information vehicle in order to promote theprinciples of design. we believe form magazine fulfils this function.”1974 - Westdeutscher Verlag, which publishes form, is bought outby Bertelsmann. However, the finalized sales package did not includeform, thanks to the efforts of editor-in-chief Karlsheinz Krug, form’sgraphics man Hanswerner Klein and commercial director H.O. Döring; thetrio henceforth brought it out themselves. To this end, they foundedthe “Verlag form” publishing company. 1994 - Alex Buck {as co-chief editor alongside Karlheinz Krug}and Matthias Vogt as MD take over at the helm of the magazine. Themagazine’s offices are located in Düsseldorf, where Karlsheinz Krugcontinues to act as editor-in-chief, and in Frankfurt, where editorFabian Wurm and graphic artist Andreas Liedtke decisively shaped thecontent and image of the magazine until the end of 1998.Offenbach-based “Büro für Gestaltung” handled the graphic relaunch andin subsequent years the publishing company brought out designermonographs and publication series, such as “Designer Profiles”, “DesignClassics” and “form diskurs”.1998 – saw the form Web site go live. With Petra Schmidt incharge of the content, and Mathias Wollin handling the graphics.Internationally renowned graphic designers such as Stefan Sagmeister,Jonathan Barnbrook, Peter Saville, Gunter Rambow and Mike Meiré createform title pages. 1999 – Petra Schmidt takes over from long-standingeditor-in-chief Karlheinz Krug. Together with Ralf Schlüter as head ofthe editorial desk, editor Gerrit Terstiege and graphic designers SarahDorkenwald and Annette Müller Petra Schmidt devises a new shape forform. Issue 170 of the “magazine for design” marks the relaunch,complete with new subtitle “The European Design Magazine”. formhenceforth comes out in a fully bilingual edition, and as of 1995 Dr.Jeremy Gaines has been in charge of the translations. The magazine nowcame out every two rather than every three months. 2002 – Birkhäuser Verlag, the renowned Swiss publishing house,takes over form magazine. Birkhäuser is part of Springer Science andBusiness Media. The form editorial team relocates from Frankfurt tonear-by Gravenbruch, where Petra Schmidt continues to be in charge.Silja van der Does takes over as art director. 2003 – Ruedi Baur, Bernha
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