really nice idea for a catwalk show: dutch artists ‘gijs frieling’ and ‘job wouters’ were approached by one of my favourites: dries van noten to create the ‘live’ backdrop for the runway for his show this year

they also created prints for fabric… an interview can be found here (dutch only)

two new posters for the dutch national ’12-’13 campaign arrived back from the printers this week…

and the following one (below) is heading off in the other direction: to the printers today

we have just completed a small identity project for the dutch national ballet, for their newly formed fan club for kids ‘jump’

the idea is to make a varied series of logos with scribbled ‘jumps’ drawn with the help all of the young kids who join the club

1. What influenced you to combine yarn and letters?

a large part of my work involves digital media (working behind a computer screen all day) and the idea to go back to handmade work was a reaction to/against this, string and nails are very flexible materials (literally and figuratively) so they offer a lot of space to make graphic shapes and typography this was the reason i chose them… also perhaps a certain nostalgia for ‘forgotten’ techniques like knitting and crochet (my mum taught me to knit when i was five) also the fact that working with these materials is very time consuming and often unpredictable adds interest to the process

2. Is legibility or visual impact more important in your designs?

legibility is certainly important in any design where text has to convey a message so yes… certainly it needs to be legible, unless making it difficult to read is part of the intention of the design (in my ‘bored’ piece made with pins this was partly the intention, i didn’t finish making the text as it was boring to do, that was a sort of design joke…)

however in most illustration pieces (at least my own ones) the impact of the visual technique is usually very important, if it is made by hand then it is usually also a priority to ensure that this is visible, otherwise it is pointless making it ‘by hand’ if you see what i mean…

3. Is it important for you to let your viewers know, how your type is made?

i partly answered that above by nr. 2, but yes it is generally definitely my aim to show the way it has been constructed and this is part of the reason i use these kinds of materials you can almost ‘feel’ how it was done… no tricks or hidden stuff, it looks like what it is…

4. What is your opinion on graphic design / craft collaborations? such as typography and embroidery, do you think there is a trend for this type of work?

well, there definitely seems to be a revival of ‘handmade’ type and analogue work, certainly as a reaction to the digital age and also because designers usually look for new techniques and methods to create imagery all the time

for me personally i do not hate computers or have a problem with digitally created work (quite the opposite in fact) i just like to use as many different methods as possible handmade work has prove to be a very fruitful route for me and my work in the past few years, however i always combine handmade and digital together whenever it suits me

i also love stuff like the ‘wild knitting’ trend and a lot of the 3D type work which is being made by young designers all over the world right now; i think it is a really exciting time to be a young designer right now…

hope this helps amy? let me know of you need any more info, incidentally there are quite a few pieces and interviews i’ve done on this subject on my blog (also an interview for IDN magazine) which you can find under the ‘me stuff’ part of my website

good luck & kind regards, martin

1. What influenced you to combine yarn and letters? 

a large part of my work involves digital media (working behind a computer screen all day) and the idea to go back to handmade work was a reaction to/against this, string and nails are very flexible materials (literally and figuratively) so they offer a lot of space to make graphic shapes and typography this was the reason i chose them… also perhaps a certain nostalgia for ‘forgotten’ techniques like knitting and crochet (my mum taught me to knit when i was five) also the fact that working with these materials is very time consuming and often unpredictable adds interest to the process

2. Is legibility or visual impact more important in your designs? 

legibility is certainly important in any design where text has to convey a message so yes… certainly it needs to be legible, unless making it difficult to read is part of the intention of the design (in my ‘bored’ piece made with pins this was partly the intention, i didn’t finish making the text as it was boring to do, that was a sort of design joke…)

however in most illustration pieces (at least my own ones) the impact of the visual technique is usually very important, if it is made by hand then it is usually also a priority to ensure that this is visible, otherwise it is pointless making it ‘by hand’ if you see what i mean…

3. Is it important for you to let your viewers know, how your type is made? 
 
i partly answered that above by nr. 2, but yes it is generally definitely my aim to show the way it has been constructed and this is part of the reason i use these kinds of materials you can almost ‘feel’ how it was done… no tricks or hidden stuff, it looks like what it is…

4. What is your opinion on graphic design / craft collaborations? such as typography and embroidery, do you think there is a trend for this type of work?

well, there definitely seems to be a revival of ‘handmade’ type and analogue work, certainly as a reaction to the digital age and also because designers usually look for new techniques and methods to create imagery all the time

for me personally i do not hate computers or have a problem with digitally created work (quite the opposite in fact) i just like to use as many different methods as possible handmade work has prove to be a very fruitful route for me and my work in the past few years, however i always combine handmade and digital together whenever it suits me

i also love stuff like the ‘wild knitting’ trend and a lot of the 3D type work which is being made by young designers all over the world right now; i think it is a really exciting time to be a young designer right now…

hope this helps amy? let me know of you need any more info, incidentally there are quite a few pieces and interviews i’ve done on this subject on my blog (also an interview for IDN magazine) which you can find under the ‘me stuff’ part of my website

good luck & kind regards, martin

a set of classic ‘anton beeke’ posters which i got hold of last week, including the top one for ‘toneelgroep amsterdam’ which i rank as one of his very best, the poster is beautifully printed in mat black and the blue rectangle is actually a UV gloss layer on top…

and here baove and below some of the striking posters he made for the ‘globe’ productions… my poster collection just got a bit better, thank you anton

nice cover for the NYT magazine special on ‘hacking’
(via ‘jean louis denis’)

some new work to start off the new year, the ‘nutcracker’ poster in a large backlit version, a fake ballet poster for a photography student friend, the brief was ‘make a picture which pokes fun at yourself’ she is quite a large girl and decided to make a ballet poster for herself, i really love the image and was glad to help her…

and the latest poster for the ‘ssst’ campaign for the ‘sugar factory’ nightclub, shown below (image by student marinus heuvelman)

these are some more of the amazing posters i saw last week (see previous post) from a dutch (as yet unknown to me) artist/designer called ‘chris lebeau’ who was active in the period in between the two wars, he was an amazing woodcutter and typographer, lebeau eventually died in a german prison camp near the end of the war… definitely someone who i will be doing some more research on this coming year… any tips on this fascinating figure are very welcome…

a fascinating collection of old jewish theater posters unearthed in the NYC public library ‘digital’ vaults by ‘steven heller’

interesting idea: the ‘pdu’ font from colophon foundry has a modular construction and they even provide a small steel stencil form which contains all of the necesaary sections to create the whole font set plus glyphs…

our latest ‘dutch national ballet’ poster for the ‘nutcracker’ currently hanging in amsterdam, image by ‘erwin olaf’

a letterpress weapon from ‘toby & pete’

i was willing but sadly unable to help talented illustrator martijn f. overweel make the booklet for his current exhibition due to a crazy deadline, it turns out that was a good thing… as he’s done a fine job all by himself, who needs designers eh?

if you would like to see it why not pop by subbacultcha in amsterdam and by a copy? before the 13th of january… for a mere €5 it’s yours

another short update: this time on the ”t barre land’ poster i posted about yesterday, the man himself ‘herman’ got in touch to tell me that this was actually a second design after the initial proposal (shown left above) had been rejected by the client… thanks for sharing, tough choice…