Tag: design

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Kho Liang Ie (continued)

Born in 1927 in Magelang and passing away on January 1st, 1975 in Amsterdam, Kho Liang le was the child of Chinese parents and a Dutch industrial designer. He is renowned for his design of the interior of Schiphol Airport. After arriving in the Netherlands in approximately 1949, he was educated at the Rietveld Academy, where he studied interior design and design. In 1958, he was appointed as Artifort’s aesthetic advisor and designer, shifting the company’s focus towards the top of the international market due to his contributions. Kho Liang le attracted foreign designers such as Pierre Paulin and Geoffrey Harcourt. His influence is still evident to this day. As an interior designer, Kho Liang le gained recognition for his work on the Schiphol Airport design in the 1960s. His creations exude purity, warmth, and a sense of liberty.

www.ftn-books.com has some Kho Liang Ie items available.

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Agoes & Otto Djaya

In the midst of the Indonesian War of Independence in 1947, director Willem Sandberg organized the first exhibition of Indonesian brothers Agus and Otto Djaya at the Stedelijk Museum in the Netherlands. This marked the first time that non-Western contemporary artists were given a solo exhibition at the Stedelijk. The Djaya brothers’ work was fueled by their involvement in the Indonesian struggle for independence after the proclamation of the Republic of Indonesia in 1945. The Stedelijk Museum’s research over the past year into the presence of the two brothers in the Netherlands sheds new light on their accomplishments. These new insights will be featured this summer at the Stedelijk in a thought-provoking exhibition spanning two rooms, a symposium, and other activities.

New research by independent curator and researcher Kerstin Winking into the work of the Djaya brothers in the Stedelijk’s collection reveals that there is a wealth of information about the brothers in Dutch archives. Agus and Otto Djaya were in Europe from 1947-1950, mostly in the Netherlands, where they secretly worked to promote Indonesian independence. The Stedelijk will showcase a selection of paintings from this period. In addition to works from the collections of the Stedelijk, the National Museum of World Cultures, and Leiden University Library, the exhibition will include revealing archival material demonstrating the entanglement of art and politics, as well as the brothers’ surveillance by the Dutch secret service and support from Dutch intellectuals for their efforts in the struggle for independence.

www.ftn-books.com has now the Willem Sandberg designed catalog from 1947 available.

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Lou Kreymborg (1894-1974)

In 1947, Lou Kreymborg (1919-1993) established the agency firm bearing his name. His travels to Denmark resulted in acquiring the latest furniture from Poul Kjaerholm and Arne Jacobsen. He personally met with them and arranged for distribution in the Netherlands. In 1954, he made contact with the Borsani brothers of Tecno in Italy, from whom he imported revolutionary furniture until his passing. He also brought fabrics from Storck and Eggert (Tulipan), furniture from Bonacina (Franco Albini and Franca Helg), lamps from Martinelli (Gae Aulenti and Achille Castiglione), furniture from Dieter Rams (Vitsoe), and fabrics from Jack Lenor Larsen to the Netherlands. His association with Bruno and Jacqueline Danese, publishers of a progressive collection of home accessories, including works from Enzo Mari and Bruno Munari, was also significant. With an early keen eye for quality, an intense personal dedication, and an unwavering belief in his innovative contemporaries, Lou Kreymborg contributed to the Netherlands’ design emancipation. With enthusiasm bordering on missionary fervor, he showcased their work in leading home stores such as Metz, Pander, and Bas van Pelt, as well as in projects by (interior) architects such as Kho Liang Ie, Hein Salomonson, and Wim Quist.

www.ftn-books.com has the ZICHT OP DESIGN boek now available.

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Aldo van den Nieuwelaar ( 1944)

Born in Tilburg in 1944, van den Nieuwelaar studied at the Academy for Visual Arts in Breda. Before establishing his own studio in 1969, he worked for various architectural firms. Designer and architect Aldo van den Nieuwelaar was renowned for his creations of lamps, furniture, cabinets, and rugs. One year prior to becoming an independent designer, in 1968, Aldo van den Nieuwelaar designed an innovative series of fluorescent lamps where the light source served as the starting point. The shape of the light source determined the design of the different fixtures in the TC Series (Tubular Construction) with the TC-6 Circular Lamp being its most iconic symbol.

www.ftn-books.com has now a great poster with van den Nieuwelaar designs available.


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Thijs Wolzak (1965)

Thijs Wolzak (1965) has been working on an ever-expanding oeuvre since 1988, both commissioned and in independent projects. He proclaims to utilize all means at his disposal to meticulously control his images from top left to bottom right, but his approach is fundamentally documentary. His visuals encapsulate encounters: with a person, a place, or an object. They are typically intricate narrations, with a strong emphasis on the context of the subject at hand. Wolzak perfectly aligns with the school of staged documentary photography.

So, ‘encounters’. Every time, he would spend hours at their homes, trying to find the right angle. The interiors didn’t really interest him, he once said in an interview. It doesn’t matter to him how he lives himself: ‘I don’t need a certain environment to feel comfortable.’ During many photoshoots, he would often be left speechless when he saw how far people go in constructing their own space. What is astonishing or absurd to most viewers is completely natural to these residents. Their choices are the only logical ones for them.

With the exhibition on interiors and the encounters a magnificent has been published whichis now available at www.ftn-books.com

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Kunst op Kamers/ de Rijp

During the manifestation ‘Kunst op Kamers’ in de Rijp, art is shown in private houses. The booklet contains the portrait of the artist involved; however, the page showing a sketch of what the artist is planning to make is closed. The reader has to tear the page open to be able to see it.

Committee

The finishing of this book is stunning: the side margins of the brochure have been left untrimmed, which makes the pages bulge towards the centre. The fine slipcase design refers to the nature of the event: peeking at other people’s interiors. Another fine detail is the accompanying mini-booklet, which contains the tickets for all open houses.

Over the years www.ftn-books.com has collected many of the publications related to this art manifestation. Also the book by Irma Boom which was chosen as one of the best designs books from 2008.

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Herman Zeekaf (1937-2009)

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Self made architect and furniture designer is known in a very small circle of admirers. Among them were Cor and Jean Rosbeek, the founders and owners of the famous Rosbeel printers in Nuth. These brothers commissioned Zeekaf to design the in and outside of their printing facilities in Nuth in 1977 and 1991.

Beside this building he became famous for some very functional furniture. This Herman Zeekaf is now getting more and more fame , because his designs are timeless.

Others have known him from a Interior Design shop he had in the city of Heerlen. His life was filled with design, furniture and architecture and in some projects he had the oppertunity to combine all into one great work of art.

www.ftn-books.com has now the ROSBEEK special on Zeekaf available.

zeekaf

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Visible Language

Because of a recent addition to my inventory here is the information on the VISIBLE LANGUAGE magazine. It is one of the leading publications in the world of graphic design and i have added some important volumes from the 70’s and 80’s to my inventory.

Visible Language is an American journal presenting visual communication research. Founded in 1967 as The Journal of Typographical Research by Merald Wrolstad, occasional Visible Language issues are co-edited with a guest editor-author.

The journal was founded with the primary tenet of the journal being that reading and writing together form a new, separate, and autonomous language system. The journal has evolved to focus on research in visual communication. The journal has covered the subject of concrete poetry, the Fluxus art movement, painted text, textual criticism, the abstraction of symbols, articulatory synthesis and text, and the evolution of the page from print to on-screen display. Guest editor-authors have included Colin Banks, John Cage, Adrian Frutiger, Dick Higgins, Richard Kostelanetz, Craig Saper, and George Steiner.

The journal was edited for 26 years (1987–2012) by Sharon Poggenpohl of the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Institute of Design, with administrative offices at the Rhode Island School of Design. It is currently edited by Mike Zender of the University of Cincinnati, which publishes and provides administrative offices for the journal.

Below a first selection of the volumes available:

 

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Roelof Mulder (1962)

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Roelof Mulder is a multidisciplinary artist, operating in the field of graphic design, type design, interior and exhibition design. He studied fine art at the Academy in Arnhem and he attended the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht for a year in order to underline his love for the graphic arts. Mulder’s departure from the academy was quickly followed by the announcement that he was to be the first winner of the Rotterdam Design Prize.
His graphic and editorial work includes books for Droog, MVRDV architects, Marcel Wanders, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, E&Y, and artists Yasumasa Yonehara, Marijke van Warmerdam and Marlene Dumas. He was member of the editorial staff and designer of Forum magazine and he has been art director of Frame magazine twice. Mulder also did campaign work for fashion brands such as Takeo Kikuchi and Diesel, various exhibition and communication work for incubator Platform21, and stamps for the Royal Dutch Post.

From his early years www.ftn-books.com has a nice book in its inventory

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Zonnehof Amersfoort posters

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From the same source as the Crouwel posters of yesterdays blog comes this series of posters for the ZONNEHOF AMERSFOORT museum. Later this would become the Armando museum, but in the Sixties and Seventies they had their own small program of exhibitions. Well worth visiting and it is interesting to see that also a smaller dutch museum thought it important that design and typography of their publications was important. The main part of these series was designed by van den Brink. All are now available at www.ftn-books.com