Ordnung & Eccentricity

The essays that provide the structure of Ordnung & Eccentricity, published by Die Gestalten, explores what makes design so compelling. It looks at wit and humour, design for business, colour, the role of stationery, the art of designing things that you want to keep and more.

The book’s title comes from two of the essays, one by a journalist who analyses the difference between German and British humour, the other, by a client who suggests that what you need from your design company is “a teutonic sense of ordnung whilst longing for a splash of English eccentricity.”

The design of the book itself epitomises Thomas Manss’s approach, combining unquestionable logic with delicious surprises. As design critic Hugh Pearman says of another Manss book, “what you get is the book as a designed object of desire”.

The book is out of print, but still available from amazon.