The Netherlands is widely recognised as having produced some of the 20th century's most innovative and influential graphic design. The country has not only nurtured some outstanding individual talents - including Jan Toorop, Theo van Doesburg, Piet Zwart, Hendrik Werkman and Gert Dumbar - but is also admired for its strong tradition of enlightened clients such as the Dutch Posterijen, Telegrafie en Telefonie (PTT).
'Dutch Graphic Design' fully documents this distinguished history, covering all aspects of the discipline from its birth at the turn of the 20th century to the anarchic "new wave" of the 1990s. Covering political posters to postage stamps, the underground press to annual reports, and type design to corporate identity, the book encompasses the widest possible range of graphic art. As well as presenting a feast of visual imagery, it examines the movements, individuals and institutions that have contributed to Dutch graphic design's worldwide impact, and provides an insight into the 20th century's important historical and cultural issues such as the debate between decoration and function and the conflicting ideals of strict geometry and free-flowing form.
Fully illustrated with over 400 photographs, this book is the first comprehensive and authoritative study of a subject that is of great interest to all graphic designers and historians of art and design.
