netherlands

Tele Communicate poster for an event in Luxembourg, 1962

I love the layering of color within the bird. If you were to isolate the blue shape, the bird would look similar to Alexander Girard’s design for the Braniff Airlines logo in 1965.

also worth checking:
317 Dutch posters

Vette Annonce type specimen sheet late - Netherlands 1950s/ early 60s

Happy Wednesday! It’s been a while since I’ve posted any type specimens, so I figured it was time to post this gem from Lettergieterij ‘Amsterdam’ (Amsterdam Type Foundry) which was founded by Nicolaas Tetterode. The specimen is a tri-fold that opens to reveal an 11 X 17 sheet. I’d love to know more about Tetterode, ATF, and this typeface. Can any of the typographers out there fill in the blanks? Has Vette Annonce been digitized? I believe “Vette Annonce” translates to “fat advertisement”. With that in mind, is “Vette Annonce” even the name of the typeface?

Stedelijk Museum program / poster c1970 - Wim Crouwel - designer

Total Design was responsible for designing many of the catalogs/ programs for the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The program above was created by Wim Crouwel and Jolijn van de Wouw (of Total Design) for an exhibition in 1970. The program folds out to a full size poster that reveals a huge letter “A” and the number “7″ which stands for Atelier 7. Atelier translates to “work shop” in English so, this might be referencing a gallery number or possibly the name of the exhibition. On the other side of the poster, it lists the artists and their artwork featured in the gallery.

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Map of the Battlefields of Arrnhem and Oosterbeek

The battlefields of Arnhem and Oosterbeek in the Netherlands never looked so good as they do in Pink and Teal. The battles were part of Operation Market Garden. It was here that the famous “First Airborne Divison” consisting of more then 8000 men, under the command of Major-General Urquhart, glided down to earth on the morning of Sunday September 17, 1944.

The scaley, snake looking trail in the lower half of the map represents the Rhine River. The battlefields can be seen as the solid patches of brown. I really appreciate how the map designer cut away the airplane and parachute icons from that mass of brown. Simple, effective and creates some interesting shapes within the negative space.

You can read more about Operation Market Garden at wikipedia.

On a sidenote, watched “King of Kong” this weekend. Great flick. Definitely biased in its presentation but none the less Billy still comes off like a really sorry bob. After all the talk of competitive gaming and playing in front of people, I was surprised that he didn’t step up to the challenge at the Guinness event in Florida. Thoughts?

Some great book covers in the Dick Bruna Flickr group.

(image via onno de wit)

(L) designer: unknown ©1966 (R) designer: J. Venema ©1966
Published by Aula-Boeken in the Netherlands

The recent excitement over Penguin covers has resulted in a renewed interest in paperback book cover design. I’m starting to see discussion groups popping up as well as new books being published on the subject. Several titles come immediately to mind; Seven Hundred Penguins and World Paperback design. In future posts I’ll discuss both of these books as well the as the book covers of dutch designer Dick Bruna. For now enjoy the pieces above.

For further viewing on the subject I Highly recommend:
Ace Jet 170 : Loads of great material here and one of my favorite blogs
The Old timey paperback book covers group on Flickr

(pictures via) world paperback design

vrije tijd-blije tijd c1960

Modern dutch poster from graphic designer Jim Brair. Killer example of early sixties design. Wow, Thats all I can say.

(via VanSabben on ebay)

Its funny, I actually counted all the posters just so I could have a number for the headline. I most likely miscounted, but oh well on to the post. Nago has put together an amazing Dutch poster gallery for you to see. Includes works from Total Design (Wim Crouwel), Otto Treumann, Pieter Brattinga, Otto Treumann, Willem Sanberg, Ben Bos, Jan van Keulen and others. The website is based in the Netherlands so if you can’t read Dutch just click on the pretty pictures.

This is part 2 of an interview with Wim Crouwel at Galerie Anatome in Paris, 2/2007

This is part 1 of an interview with Wim Crouwel at Galerie Anatome in Paris, 2/2007