Crouwel is a remarkable, inspiring figure born in Netherlands and influenced by the Bauhaus. His art is mostly focusing on typography but he is also known as an expressionist painter. Crouwel's systematic approach and the ability to integrate both emotional and rational in his work brought him to the top of his game. He designs print works;catalogs and posters, postage stamps, phone books and also fonts. Very attracted to the neutral typefaces, Crouwel believes that the type should not have meaning in itself but to inform and inform quickly and clearly. He further states that text should be readable but still aesthetic.
"I am a modernist, you know, I was trained in the period. I lived in the period. I love modernism". (Wim Crouwel, Helvetica)
Crouwel is also well-known for his ability to carefully listen to the clients and incorporate their wishes in his work properly.
If you are already not familiar with his work, probably one of the most well-known font jobs done by Crouwel is the "New Alphabet", digital typesetting.
In one of the interviews with Crouwl, he gets the chance to talk about the debate that went on for almost a decade between two designers, Crouwel himself and Jan Van Toorn. The differences in design views between the two designers became very clear and soon became a debate. While Crouwel's work was clear, harmonious, using single typeface and almost uniform, Toorn dared to be messier and each new work different from the previous. Crouwel angered by Toorn's work, their relationship was confrontational for over a decade, but fortunately today they are in good terms. While Crouwel does not like to use many typefaces and believes that should be kept neutral and also informative, today his work is considered maybe simple but trendy.
"The meaning is in the content of the text and not in the typeface, and that is why we loved Helvetica very much". (Wim Crouwel, Helvetica)
Complete Crouwel [type face designer Wim Crouwel]. Creative Review v. 17 (May 1997) p. 88
Poynor, R. Counter points. Print (New York, N.Y.) v. 62 no. 4 (August 2008) p. 31-2
http://www.iconofgraphics.com/Wim-Crouwel/
No comments:
Post a Comment