WIM CROUWEL : Mr. GRIDNIK
“Graphic design is not a luxury but a necessity” — 1968
By Lauren Smith
Creative Intern at VBAT
On the 19th of September 2019, globally renowned Dutch graphic designer, Wim Crouwel passed away at the age of 90. After a relationship with Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam that spanned 22 years, a large portion of his work is currently on display there at the Wim Crouwel : Mr Gridnik exhibition.
Self-described ‘king of the grid’, grid layouts were at the core of his design mentality, consistently producing striking asymmetric visuals. In his mind, design was functional, bringing order through his design principles. However, Crouwel didn’t always abide by his own personal rules and sometimes created compositions involving contrasting colours, type and form. Crouwel worked primarily in Helvetica and Univers whilst designing for the Stedelijk, favouring Univers as it was the first font to have the same v-height in every grade and he loved to work with it.
He was highly influenced by the Swiss designers of the time, especially by their way of thinking and visual realisation. Namely Joseph Müller-Brockmann and Armin Hofmann for their vision and ‘poetic design’.
Crouwel truly left his mark on Holland, designing many aspects including its postage stamps, Schiphol signage system, and even the Dutch football team strip for the 2014 World Cup. He co-founded the ‘first large design studio’ in the Netherlands, Total Design, in 1963. With clients ranging from the Dutch Post Office to Schiphol Airport. The studio at that time often found itself designing entire typefaces for clients — which lead to innovative type projects such as the New Alphabet, a space age style font which received massive coverage (both positive and negative) due to its illegibility.
Crouwel’s design work achieved cult status in the young British graphic design community. Becoming widespread in the use of the New Alphabet type face by Peter Saville for the 1988 Joy Division album cover.
He succeeded in designing what is likely to have been the world’s only telephone directory without a single capital letter, for the Dutch post office, produced annually in the mid-1970s. Crouwel organised each page into columns and reduced entries to a minimum, millions of copies were produced and one was to be found in every phone with a land-line.
“Straightforward, readable and well-structured typography. That’s what I wanted to do and I hope that they will remember me as a designer who was straightforward, and still trying to find some tension in the work, to have work that is recognisable.” -2011
I visited the exhibition on a rainy Sunday afternoon, finding myself immediately absorbed in the world of Crouwel, in which function and clarity combine to create perfect composition. As a designer at the very beginning of her career, it was humbling to see a life-time’s worth of work of a leader in graphic design innovation. I highly recommend visiting for an excellent opportunity to see some groundbreaking design work first hands, as well as an opportunity to enjoy a quiet moment of reflection amongst some beautiful graphic design.
Our creative director Graham Sturt interviewed Crouwel as part of our Dutch Design Heroes series in 2015. Should you wish to read more about Wim Crouwel in his own words the interview can be found here:
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written by Lauren Smith, Creative Intern at VBAT
edited by Connie Fluhme, PR at VBAT
