piet zwart Memphis Film Piet Zwart was a Dutch archi- Since Zwart was a self- & Television tect who was noted mostly by thought typographer, he of- and AVRO his avant-garde approaches ten didn’t pay close attention invite graphic in modern typography and to typographic details, such designers to design. His contemporary as differentiating of upper design a film typotekt designs were of a similar cali- and lower case; instead, the poster for Ev- ber to the work and innova- way he assembled symbols, erything Must tion of the Bauhaus. He was negative space, and letters Change – Piet deeply influenced by De Stijl, gave his unusual dynamic Zwart. The new Russian Constructivism and compositions. Indeed, Zwart film by direc- Dada art movement. Zwart learned the basics of type and tor Sherman never believed in belonging printing from an 18-year-old De Jesus tells to a particular artistic move- apprentice. Later, working for typographer the story of the ment so he absorbed the best NKF Company, he mastered progressive ideas of these three art styles these basic methods of typog- and innovative and broke apart to create his raphy while founding a new designer Piet own work. Zwart referred to style with the use of primary Zwart. architect himself as ‘Typotekt,” a hybrid colors and photomontage. In- of the words “typographer” spired by Bauhaus professor and “architect,” as he devel- László Moholy-Nagy in the oped new designs that were late 1920’s and early 1930’s, built with typography. Zwart’s he increasingly focused in first typographical work in- photography. He later became cluded advertisements and a lecturer and spent a year at a logo for the Vickers House the new Bauhaus campus in Company; the work “Za- Dessau, where he stressed gen, boren, vijlen” employed the importance of photogra- both letterforms and blank phy in modern design and press stock as well as the research. Also, in the 1930’s red and black palette favored Zwart was commissioned to by many contemporaries. design the book: “The Book of June1-July8 PTT,” which was targeted for children to learn how to make 2014 use of the Dutch postal service. Possibly the NKF catalogue this is an exam- height of his two spreads ple of Zwarts graphic design 1927-1928 more creative career, the 295x210mm typographical NKF Catalog approach once he designed he had begun in 1927-28 (all to experiment images here) more with was printed shapes, sizes, in full-color typefaces etc. and was 80 They are the pages long. front cover and inside-page to the ‘Trio-Rec- lameboek’ he designed dur- ing 1931.