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WIM CROUWEL & Typo- Graphy WIM CROUWEL & Typo- graphy The film HELVETICA introduced me to profile experiments with letter shapes. me some of her projects that play with Wim Crouwel and It was a rare chance Examples are the catalogues and message and typography. In the dream to see different generations of typog- posters for the Léger (1957), Hiroshima project she organized her typogra- raphers, designers and how they react (1957), Bazaine (1958), Lurçat (1959), phy according to the emotions of her when they hear the word “helvetica” Fernhout (1963),Michaux (1964), Vorm- dreams. The result is very chaotic but was quite funny in an inspiring way. gevers (1968), Oldenburg (1970) and sensible at the same time, as she used WIM CROUWEL is the big legendary Lucht kunst (1971) exhibitions. an elegant serif typeface. dutch graphic designer and typographer known for his systematic and creative In response to the technical limitations The most interesting thing to discover approach to the shape of letters. Van of the first computer-controlled typeset- in this research was, how powerful Abbe museum organised a special exhi- ters from 1963, Crouwel designed his typography actually is, when we want bition in their library occasionally for his ‘New Alphabet’, a font with only horizon- to communicate certain messages. And 80th birthday. tal and vertical lines. Crouwel did not how typefaces, just by themselves can design his alphabet for book typography already have a meaning, without even Crouwel studied at the Minerva Acad- specifically, but believed that people looking at the actual message. emy in Groningen then went to Amster- could get used to “new shapes of new dam, where he became a student under alphabets and new forms of typography. Charles Jongejans at the Instituut voor New Alphabet is a highly abstract font, Kunstnijverheids-onderwijs . His first job based on a dot-matrix system in which was with a company that designed and he intended it to be easily read by com- built exhibitions. He started his own firm puters. Crouwel has designed several in 1954. In 1956, he started working with font sets, of which the New Alphabet interior architect Kho Liang Ie, carrying (1967) is best known. New Alphabet 1, 2 out assignments for the furniture indus- and 3, Stedelijk Alphabet, Fodor Alpha- try and the graphics sector. bet, Gridnik Alphabet. “Design is about problem solving, but I Edy de Wilde (the director of Van Abbe cannot resist adding something per- museum that time) became one of sonal. A page should have tension” said Crouwel’s regular patrons, asking him to Wim Crouwel. design the museum’s posters, cata- To go further with my research I de- logues and letterhead. This partnership cided to meet Marlene Soulier, a young continued after De Wilde transferred graphic designer working in a studio to the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam in Amsterdam, who uses typography in 1963, and Crouwel was also com- in her work. She explained me that for missioned to make the designs for the her, type was just a tool to express a Stedelijk Museum and Museum Fodor. message in a certain way. That using The virtual carte blanche he was given different typefaces will attach different allowed him to complete his first high- meanings to a message. She showed .
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