Otl Aicher, Robert Kuhn
Published in 1987 by: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Cologne

Volume 1 of the FSB Edition turned out to be a stroke of luck for FSB. Challenged by Otl Aicher to reflect on our work, we realised that FSB had been occupied with grasping and handles since the foundation of the company in 1881. This meant that the title, the theme and the way to handle this project were already more or less fixed. All further steps followed almost naturally.

An analysis of the terms "grasping“ and “handles" revealed three different meanings: Groping, gripping and grasping. Two different dimensions opened up simultaneously: the material world of tangible objects and the abstract world of the mind. The obvious link between both worlds was the human hand. FSB has always made products for the hand, extensions of the hand, artefacts, objects to be touched, to be experienced and grasped by the touch of the hand. The connection had been identified.

Otl Aicher was very proud of this first volume in the FSB Edition. He had contributed four major essays: "Gripping and Grasping", "Counting with the Hand", "Extensions of the Ego" and "Wittgenstein’s Handle". He was particularly proud of his first essay, in which he explained that we human beings think in the language of our hands (to come to grips with, to grasp a situation, to describe something, etc). It was not only the first text that he included in his anthology of essays later on (analogue and digital, Berlin 1991), but he repeatedly asked our permission for more reprints in other publications. Just one example is an issue of ARCH+ (No. 98, April 1983, Special Issue Otl Aicher/Modern Design, pages 32–34).