Gui Bonsiepe
gɪː ˈbo˘nsɪːpe˘(born 23 March 1934) is a German designer, teacher and writer. Especially in
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...
and Germany, his publications are considered standards of
design theory
Design theory is a subfield of design research concerned with various theoretical approaches towards understanding and delineating design principles, design knowledge, and design practice.
History
Design theory has been approached and inte ...
.
Life
Gui Bonsiepe was born in
Glücksburg
Glücksburg (; ) is a small town northeast of Flensburg in the district of Schleswig-Flensburg, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is Germany's northernmost town.
It is situated on the south side of the Flensburg Fjord, Flensborg Fjord, an inlet ...
, and studied
Graphics
Graphics () are visual images or designs on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, screen, paper, or stone, to inform, illustrate, or entertain. In contemporary usage, it includes a pictorial representation of the data, as in design and manufa ...
and
Architecture
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...
until 1955 at
Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste
Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste in München (Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts) is an association of renowned personalities in Munich, Bavaria. It was founded by the Free State of Bavaria in 1948, continuing a tradition established in 1808 b ...
, Munich and at
TU München
The Technical University of Munich (TUM or TU Munich; ) is a public research university
A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are "the ...
. Until 1959, he studied at
Ulm School of Design (Hochschule für Gestaltung Ulm) in the Information Department.
Between 1960 and 1968, he worked as an assistant professor at Ulm School of Design.
After closure of the Ulm School of Design in 1968, Bonsiepe relocated to South America, working as a design consultant. From 1970 to 1973, he led the design team for the operations room of the
Cybersyn project.
[Bonsiepe, G., (2009), ''Entwurfskultur und Gesellschaft'', Birkhäuser Basel, Boston, Berlin. pp.35-62]
From 1987 to 1989, Bonsiepe worked as an interface designer in a
software company in
Emeryville, California
Emeryville is a city located in northwest Alameda County, California, in the United States. It lies in a corridor between the cities of Berkeley, California, Berkeley and Oakland, California, Oakland, with a border on the shore of San Francisc ...
, United States.
From 1993 to 2003, Bonsiepe was Professor for Interface Design at
Köln International School of Design
The Köln International School of Design (in short: KISD) is an institution of the Cologne University of Applied Sciences (''Technische Hochschule Köln'' or ''TH Köln'') and offers an interdisciplinary study program in the field of design. In ...
(KISD) in Germany.
He was Professor for Integrated Media at Escola Superior de Desenho Industrial (ESDI),
Universidade do Estado de Rio de Janeiro, where he planned and established a Master of Design study program.
He was one of the three keynote speakers at
Design History Society
The Design History Society is an arts history organisation founded in 1977 to promote and support the study and understanding of design history. The Society undertakes a range of charitable activities intended to encourage and support research and ...
Annual Conference (2013) at
National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad
The National Institute of Design (NID) is a public design university in Paldi, Ahmedabad, with extension campuses in Gandhinagar and Bengaluru. Regarded as one of the foremost design schools in Asia as surveyed by ''Bloomberg Businessweek'' in ...
, along with
Sujata Keshavan and
Tapati Guha-Thakurta. He had visited NID in 1979 too as one of the speakers in
United Nations Industrial Development Organization
The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) (French: Organisation des Nations unies pour le développement industriel; French/Spanish acronym: ONUDI) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that assists countries in e ...
- ICSID conference.
He lives in
La Plata
La Plata () is the capital city of Buenos Aires province, Argentina. According to the 2022 Argentina census, census, the La Plata Partido, Partido has a population of 772,618 and its metropolitan area, the Greater La Plata, has 938,287 inhabit ...
,
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...
and in
Florianópolis
Florianópolis () is the capital and second largest city of the state of Santa Catarina (state), Santa Catarina, in the South Region, Brazil, South region of Brazil. The city encompasses Santa Catarina Island and surrounding small islands, as we ...
,
Brasil
Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
.
Publications
* ''Precariousness & Ambiguity: Industrial Design in Dependent Countries'' in: Design for Need, edited by J. Bicknell and L. McQiston. London: Pergamon Press, 1976.
* ''A ‘Tecnologia’ da Tecnologia'' forword: Darcy Ribeiro ed. São Paulo: Edgard Blücher, 1983.
* ''On some virtues of design.'' Publications of the Jan van Eyck Academy. Maastricht: Jan van Eyck Academy, 1998.
* ''Interface: An approach to design'' edited by Dawn Barrett. Maastricht: Jan van Eyck Academy, 1999.
* ''Diseño y crisis'' Valencia: campgrafic, 2012.
* ''On the Heteronomy of Design in a Post-Utopian Age'' in: After the Bauhaus, Before the Internet: A History of Graphic Design Pedagogy, edited by Geoff Kaplan, 264-70. New York / San Francisco: npp No Place Press, 2022.
* ''The Disobedience of Design'', edited by Lara Penin. London: Bloomsbury, 2022.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bonsiepe, Gui
Living people
Academic staff of the Technical University of Cologne
Design researchers
1934 births
Technical University of Munich alumni
Academic staff of the Rio de Janeiro State University
German expatriates in Brazil
German male writers
Academic staff of the Ulm School of Design