Peter Stebbing studied zoology prior to qualifying as a biological illustrator at Hornsey College of Art in 1971. After Hornsey he immediately went freelance and shared a joint biological illustration practice in London up until his appointment in Germany in 1987. Peter has worked on a wide range of biological illustration commissions ranging from biology teaching aids to accurate scientific illustrations for zoological papers to children"s books for a variety of clients including: Time Life, Ravensburger, Longmans, Mitchell Beazley, Octopus, Hamlyn, Penguin Books, Nelson, BBC Publications, Macmillan, Readers Digest, Marconi, Sunday Times, British Museum (Nat. Hist.), ICI, The Health Education Council, Nature, etc.
In 1978 he began teaching part-time and he has taught at ten design schools in the UK including Kingston University, Wimbledon School of Art, De Montford University, the Central School of Art & Design, Middlesex University, Ravensbourne College of Design & Communication, etc. and he was an external examiner at Chelsea School of Art, etc. In order to acquaint himself more closely with design education he has deliberately taught at all levels of tertiary education from foundation (Vorkurs) and BA to MA courses. In 1987 he took up his current post at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Schwäbisch Gmünd where he now teaches analytical drawing and creative visualising. In 1989 he was a founding member of the Academy für Gestaltung im Handwork, Ulm, for which he wrote the teaching program.
His early scientific education has substantially influenced his approach to design education. Since 1984 he has intensively researched and been fascinated by the basics of visual composition and the universal constants of human visual expression which he proposes have provided a grammar of visual organisation. He also proposes that our perceptual sensitivity to these universal constants evolved with our need to recognise the diversity of organic forms. Peter has published a number of peer reviewed papers, developed and taught a teaching program and run workshops on this organisational grammar.
Peter Stebbing is the ERASMUS coordinator at the Hochschule für Gestaltung since 1990 and runs workshops in both drawing, visualising and visual composition in design schools in London, Helsinki, Graz, Milan, Budapest, Kuopio, etc.
Publications
1. Stebbing, P.D., 1988, “Identifying the basis of visual appeal for designers”, a shortlisted winning entry for the ICSID/Robert Maxwell international competition for new writing on design thinking,, part organised by the RCA, unpublished.
2. Stebbing, P.D., 1998, “There is a Universal Grammar for Visual Composition”, Proc. of the 1998 Milan 1st Int. Conf. Generative Art '98, Generative Design Lab., Milan Polytechnic, Milan
3. Stebbing, P.D., 1999, “Shaping our creative understanding and the biological origins of our creative understanding of shape - a universal grammar of aesthetic composition,” in Proc. of the AISB"99 Symposium on creativity in entertainment and visual art, Edinburgh (Soc. For the study of artificial intelligence and simulation behaviour), Edinburgh College of Art & Univ. of Edinburgh, pp. 31 - 37.
4. Stebbing, P.D., 1999, “The beauty of the mother"s smile: a universal and unconscious source for generative form in visual expression and design,” in ed., Soddu, C., Generative Art "99, Proc. of the 1999, 2nd Int. Conf. Generative Art,Politecnico di Milano, Milan.
5. Stebbing, P.D., 2001, „Es gibt eine universelle ästhetische Grammatik für Kunst ünd Design: ein neues interdisziplinares Fach für Hochschule und Schule“, Tag der Lehre 2001, Innovatives Lehren und Lernen, Geschäftsstelle für Hochschuldidaktik and Fachhochschulen in Baden-Württemberg, Karlsruhe.
6. Stebbing, P.D., 2003, “From evolutionary adaptation to aesthetic design - an aesthetic grammar”, ICSID 2nd Education Conf. Critical motivationa and new dimensions, Sept 5 - 7, ICSID Design Congress 2003, iF International Forum Design GmbH, Hannover.
7. Stebbing, P.D., 2003, “A grammar of visual composition and its biological origin,” Communication & Cognition, vol. 36 no. 3/4, pp. 353 - 390.
8. Stebbing, P.D., 2004, “Creating a real meeting of cultures and media in the art and design curriculum through the identification of universals of aesthetic behaviour,” Cumulus Working Papers, Utrecht, 13/04, pp16 - 20, publication series G, University of Art & Design Helsinki, Helsinki
9. Stebbing, P.D., 2004, A universal grammar for visual composition, Leonardo, Vol 37, no 1, pps 63 - 70
peter.stebbing@hfg-gmuend.de
