Designblog

Let us therefore create a new guild of craftsmen without the class-distinctions that raise an arrogant barrier between craftsmen and artist! Let us together desire, conceive and create the new building of the future, which will combine everything – architecture and sculpture and painting – in a single form which will one day rise towards the heavens from the hands of a million workers as the crystalline symbol of a new and coming faith. 

In place of the old bourgeois society, with its classes and class antagonisms, we shall have an association, in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.

Quotations from the ending paragraph of the Bauhaus Manifesto written by Walter Gropius and the the Communist Manifesto.

To me it is striking how both of these quotes talk about equalness, breaking away from classes – in society and in a working context, and how these changes will affect everybody. Yet, both ideologies, Bauhaus as a school and Communism as a form of society practiced around the world, has very prominent leading figures, who in one way or the other, has the power to rule over the students/citizens. For example, when Mies van der Rohe took over the leadership of the Bauhaus school (at this point it was located in Dessau) he had interviews with each student, to determine if they would follow the rules, else they would get kicked out. This can be linked to the arbitrary imprisonments in Cuba, happening both under Fidel Castro and now, as a higher power determining what you can and cannot do, in a society/school that claims freedom and equality as their main goals. The scale of these decisions are of course tremendously different, one is an entire nation and the other an art school in Germany, but still I find the similarities of the Bauhaus and Communism as ideologies and then as practiced in real life quite fascinating.

To look further into this, I have chosen to read Animal Farm by George Orwell and compare the degeneration of the animals original motive, to the Bauhaus and the Rietveld Academy as schools that are, at least to some extent, based on the same ideas of teaching. This, I guess, is very clearly seen in the Basicyear – Vorkurs in Bauhaus – which was created by Bauhaus teacher Johannes Itten

Animal Farm starts of with the animals dreaming of a better life, in which they are all equal and not treated as the means to an end, but like living beings with rights no different from the humans, who rule over them. When the opportunity for their dreams rises, they seize it and try to create a life and society where they all work and receive equally. The story is never specified as communist within the book, but Orwell has stated that it is an allegory to Russia, before and after the revolution in 1917 that then led them into the Stalinist era. This new society first flourishes and is enjoyed by most until one of the pigs, Napoleon, sees a chance to gain more power. He does so by constantly telling the other animals that this is actually what they want, that he is choosing to do and so in their service. Finally *spoiler alert* it comes to a point when the other animals cannot tell a human being from a pig, their “chosen” leader has become what they tried to escape and it seems like an inevitability that this should happen.

To me, at least, this bears a lot of similarities to how the Rietveld Academy functions. A way of showing and telling one thing, but then not fully living it. This can be seen in the departments, how openness and inclusivity is advocated, while in reality inter-fluidness can be quite hard to achieve as a student. With classes only for ones own department (as in TxT), extremely long waiting lists for facilities (as in Glass) and very limited opening hours (as in Ceramics). Of course complete freedom and total sharing is very hard to obtain, if not impossible, but should you then, as a school, really claim these traits? On the other hand, you could claim that TxT, Glass and Ceramics are some of the departments that actually live up to the heritage of the Bauhaus as they are somewhat material and technique based.

In this context I feel it is interesting to bring up the subject of the Fine Arts department, as this goes against all the teachings in the Bauhaus. Creating just for creating, separating art from everyday life, from the craftspeople, from the non-artist. The fact that this is now one of the biggest departments at the Rietveld, can be seen as a sign that the Rietveld is becoming what the Bauhaus set out not to be. It was an animal, that turned out to be a pig and is now indistinguishable from a human. Or almost, at least.

Finally, let us look at how the Bauhaus aimed to integrate art and life, to live with art, to build a gesamtkunstwerk, which is also very much apparent in their inclusion in arts and crafts – creating things that are not art for art’s sake, but are actually usable and meant to be used in real life. When paired with the exhibition Netherlands ? Bauhaus – pioneers of a new world, at Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, it can be eye opening to see that something that was initially meant for use and created in a sense of togetherness is now showed in vitrines, where you cannot touch, feel, or try to use the work for its purpose. Is this exactly the opposite of what the Bauhaus was trying to do?

At the Bauhaus exhibition

I found two very intriguing works. I don’t know why I was attracted to them, but I had to force myself to look at them carefully. Since there was something exciting to see in those work, I am going to explain it a little bit here.

First one is [relief h] (1919) from Oskar Schlemmer.

The relief h is Oskar Schlemmer’s ideal form for developing human figure which he recognized as an all-encompassing reference system. He used to work on paintings before, but he expanded this work to 3D by using the relief. Although this example is made from plaster, he also worked with other material like bronze. 

Each part has a different way of creating shape, and the way light and shadow appear is very beautiful. Roundness in relief, or that only the face has a different texture than the rest, every parts has its own feature , and still it harmonizes well as a whole.

The other one is [the Berlin chair] (1923) made by Gerrit Rietveld.

This was his new furniture design with its asymmetry and flat panel construction,. It was specially designed for the exhibition he and Huzar had in Berlin in 1923, hence the name ‘Berlin chair’.

Simple yet daring, it makes me feel good to look at. It also tickles my fantasy and it is like a feeling of playing with the blocks somehow. Surprisingly the impression of the chair changes completely depending on the angle. I liked looking at it, from the front and to the right of it, toward the front.

Now I will take a look at their background.

Oskar Schlemmer (1888-1943)

Oskar Schlemmer was a German stage-set designer, choreographer, and teacher. He was pursuing the relationship between figure and space. Actually he himself joined the [triadic ballet] (1922) as a dancer and deepened his understanding for interaction between figure and space. Specifically about this [relief h], it’s a development from his paintings on the relief. He reduced some factors such as colors and shapes, and used white plaster, resulted in 3 dimensional effect on 2D surface. His exploration had focus in simplicity, abstractness, and space. As he was working on this abstract shapes of the relief combined with the wall surface, he made a big step by haptically thematizing the link with architecture.

Gerrit Rietveld (1888-1964)

Gerrit Rietveld was a Dutch furniture designer and architect. He felt more freedom in the exploration of ideas when designing furniture. In some of his chair designs, he tried to deduct conventional chair factors and find the way to express the aesthetic with only simple structure and linear lines. In the apt language of Rietveld, “a chair should not be more complicated than a safety-pin.” Then dealing with the chair and space. 
As you can see from the picture below, the forms are considered to be continued to the surrounding space. “Instead of a solitary finished angle that ends and close everything, smoothing away the construction by some degree of ornament, Rietveld has the lines and planes pass each other at nodal points.”

Also with playing the role of color, both room and furniture has dissolved into form and color, and their hierarchical relation has been eliminated.

From these two works, what I find interesting is that the object doesn’t complete within itself but unite with surroundings. It is connected. It completes with the space. Their approach to space, or their stance for challenge, I feel, is related to what I am looking for as a Rietveld Academie student.

As a premise, I want to explain what it indicates when I use the word “space” from now on. “Space” for me is not only the physicality of space, but it includes people inside, culture, common sense, habits and all to be space. In other words, environment. I feel these all things are as one space, and it influences on my mindset a lot. As a Rietveld student, I believe that the environment is suitable for exploration of space like these two designers. I couldn’t go further beyond my limitation due to my personality and environment. I wanted to go beyond those border, but didn’t know how, which means I was making the same movements within the space.

Let me put this into an image.

[left] image from the Japan folk crafts museum - [right] image of work from a foundation year student in Bauhaus

For the left one, the lines are organic texture and arranged in a way that the entire thing can be harmonized. It is hard to go out to the white empty space. On the other hand (in the one on the right), this line is drawn clearly and composed unsymmetrical. In addition, the end of line cannot be seen here and it continues outside the frame. It’s like intercepting the space boldly.

Suppose what is reflected on art works is how I see, think and understand things, then I see the possibility to explore my new way of living by breaking my convention through making art. The word “environment” is not enough to describe this concept. This physical part, tangible part of space seems to embody intangible parts. If it is connected, by pursuing things beyond my border in physical space, I can also explore the intangible part of feelings and reaction to society. Studying their attempts to interpret space will be the main motivation for my purpose in staying at the Rietveld Academie to search for my way of living.

The Bauhaus manifesto published in 1919 outlines basic traits of the school. Headed with the Lyonel Feininger Cathedral (Kathedrale), the reader faces three stars shining above the turrets of the fictional basilica.

Lionel Feininger, Kathedrale, 1919, Cover of the Bauhaus Manifesto.
Programme of the Bauhaus. 

The three stars are said to represent the main three elements of painting, architecture and sculpture. All of which fall under the main concept of ‘building’. The Bauhaus was dreamt up upon a basis of creatives coming together, in alliance. To build work in an evolving space, a cathedral of mucky boldness, master among student, declaring craftsmanship and building as the basis of all learning.

Bauhaus itself is a blend of the word ‘to build’ and ‘house’. It takes semantic place as a ‘building house’. Now we can see the offspring of the school stretching from Berlin to Chicago, Pittsburgh and the Netherlands. Amsterdam is home to the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, which too was birthed from the wave of Bauhausian teachers and students left itching to scatter and inform after the original disbanded.

The school, mostly founded on modernist[1] design still has it’s reverberations. Is it just names that live on? Is the branding of Gerrit Rietveld, the only thing that links us to it’s educational model origins? Or is there still a cry of modernist education professing ‘building and making’ over all students?

It occurs that in the postmodern[2] world, the act of ‘building’ is seemingly scattered. Questioned theoretically. Few are painters, sculptors or architects now. Monogamous artists are perhaps becoming a thing of the past, steadily becoming toast along with craft in art. Perhaps we aren’t building physical practices anymore – emerging in the form of degree courses like ‘Autonomous Sculpture’ surfacing at the Rietveld, a subject so loose – almost transient. The focus here is on concept, as opposed to physicality.

The original Bauhaus manifesto is not something that presents a package of transience, but one of definitive action – “Architects, sculptors, painters—we must all turn to the crafts. … The artist is an exalted artisan.” The stress is on doing. Less on thinking.

The question I would like to pose is ‘what really happened during this rework?’ In the move from modernity to postmodernity, the focus has changed. Does this mean compromise? The change has happened in many forms, yet using the policy and attitudes towards ‘building’ in the two schools, we can evaluate them on a level playing field.

In my personal day to day experiences of the school, I have never been encouraged to ‘build something’. However, I have been encouraged to think reflectively, as if constructing something from thought. Within Itten’s original preliminary base course structure, the idea of elementarization[3] of basic artistic means plays a large part. I question wether this is still relevant with postmodernity. Elementarization was a method of finding the core of things. That could be related to shape, colour, and formal elements much better than thoughts, concept or theories. Deconstruction of colour, according to Itten’s book ‘The Elements of Colour’, allows you to provide “general rules and laws of colour, yet also relate it to subjective opinion”. Elementarization is a bid to find the root of something, the truth in which the experience lies. However, within a postmodern (Rietveld) structure, ‘truth’ itself is something shied away from. Instead of trying to find ‘the truth about colour (or making)’, we are left trying to find ‘the truth about thinking’, left ‘thinking about thinking’.

It is important to mention that even just through the existence of the Basic Year, and the formation of classes, teachers and subjects, it is apparent that the Rietveld does honour the idea of a ‘good education’, over a ‘bad one’. They have, after all  applied this structure to the course based on reason and pedagogy[4] study (or so I would assume). Thus, the structure must be based on certain means that deem it useful or good to us as students. This leads me to believe that there is indeed a right and a wrong way to educate young artists. In other words, there is a true art education to be obtained. In the Gropius manifesto of 1919, ‘What is Architecture’, this truth lies in “architecture, painting and sculpture”. But the world today demands a wider spectrum of conversation. I personally think that it is more than okay to dedicate oneself to finding a real trade, or becoming the master of something, as opposed to a jack of all trades.

I can see both sides of the story in so much that The Rietveld has to keep up to date with the process’ of the current art world, but coming from a somewhat dated model. When beginning this essay, I was under the impression that the school was undergoing some kind of identity crisis. Attempting to link themselves to their withering ancestral roots in Bauhaus. I would argue that the link is indeed withering. That can be seen in their policies on ‘making’. It is perhaps more of a historical connection now. In truth, if I wanted to become a master woodworker, I could. But it wouldn’t line up with the philosophy of the school. I have personally received criticism for dedicating myself towards attempting to become a kind of master in one material.

In conclusion, Gropius himself would suggest that the Rietveld needs a re-work if we are to base our education on a Bauhausian model. I think he would suggest that there are no ‘master craftspeople’ being raised up.

The Rietveld Academie has not explicitly chosen to follow the Bauhaus manifesto like some kind of Bible, so, from the perspective of a student studying here now, the school is allowed to deviate from the original blueprints due to societal changes. I personally think it’s great that we aren’t all sold into unpaid labour making zig-zag chairs. Yet, the school should probably analyse its withering links to the past. Just like inevitably a grandson will probably have different interests to his Grandfather. The Rietveld is not in an identity crisis, but slowly developing the ability to keep proud the family name, yet not live in the shadow of it’s ancestry. There will probably be a time, when the Rietveld’s education model will bear no similarity at all with that of the Bauhaus.

[1] Modernism(ism) – Modernism refers to a global movement in society and culture that from the early decades of the twentieth century sought a new alignment with the experience and values of modern industrial life. These were often utopian, and modernism was in general associated with ideal visions of human life and society and a belief in progress.

[2] Postmodern(ism) -Postmodernism was a reaction against modernism. While modernism was based on idealism and reason, postmodernism was born of scepticism and a suspicion of reason. It challenged the notion that there are universal certainties or truths.

[3] Elementarization – The reduction of artistic elements to their most basic or original form.

[4] Pedagogy – The method and practice of teaching, especially as an academic subject or theoretical concept.

1. Johannes Itten, The Elements of Color, John Wiley and Sons Inc, Hoboken, 1970

2. CityLab. (2019). Western Pennsylvania’s Bauhaus Town. [online] Available at: https://www.citylab.com/design/2019/03/bauhaus-pennsylvania-gropius-breuer-aluminum-city-terrace/584485/ [Accessed 20 May 2019].

3. Moss, C. (2019). 100 years of Bauhaus: Berlin and beyond. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2019/mar/16/100-years-bauhaus-germany-berlin-weimar-dessau [Accessed 20 May 2019].

4. The New Bauhaus. (2019). The New Bauhaus. [online] Available at: https://www.thenewbauhaus.com/ [Accessed 20 May 2019].

5. Gropius, W. (1919). Walter Gropius, Bauhaus Manifesto (1919). [online] Adepratt.weebly.com. Available at: https://adepratt.weebly.com/uploads/3/7/7/1/37716215/bauhaus_-_manifesto__program_statement.pdf [Accessed 20 May 2019]

6. Bauhaus-imaginista.org. (2019). The Bauhaus Manifesto – Articles – bauhaus imaginista. [online] Available at: http://www.bauhaus-imaginista.org/articles/1771/bauhaus-manifesto-re-cap [Accessed 21 Apr. 2019]

7. Danchev, D., 2011. 100 Artists’ Manifestos: From the Futurists to the Stuckists. (s.n.). p159-p161 (M33 Walter Gropius – What is Architecture? 1919)

8. Gerrit Rietveld Academie. (2019). Home. [online] Available at: https://rietveldacademie.nl/ [Accessed 20 May 2019]

Nicholas van Pelt

When I first heard “Bauhaus,” my first impression of it was just “big movement important in the history of European art” Because I didn’t have much interest and think it was not really related to me but the Boijmans Museum’s exhibition of Bauhaus, where I went without any expectations, influenced me more than I expected.
The systematic learning of basic things, such as materials and colors, seemed boring at first glance, but turned out to be the most dynamic and interesting things. Exploring the properties of materials, understanding the various and contrary things, geometric shapes and colors are the most essential elements for art, but I had missed them.
Through the writings of Johannes Itten, founder of Bauhaus Vorkurs (preliminary course), I could understand exactly why Bauhaus put so much effort into these things.

Let’s take a look at the works that I saw at the exhibition and the writings of Johannes Itten together.

Two of the most distinct elements of Bauhaus: Geometric form and primitive colors

“The clear geometric form is the one most easily comprehended and its basic elements are the circle, the square and the triangle. Every possible form lies dormant in these formal elements. They are visible to him who sees, invisible to him who does not. Form is also colour. Without colour there is no form. Form and colour are one…Geometric forms and the colours of the spectrum are the simplest, most sensitive forms and colours and therefore the most precise means of expression in a work of art.” •1

It was like the playful work of children. It made me think differently about the concepts and the properties of materials that I had been knowing.

“ Forms and colours were discussed and presented in any number of polar contrasts. These contrasts can be presented as intellectual concepts…The students had to present these carious contrasts, separately and in combinations, in a manner that allowed our senses to perceive them convincingly.” “All artistic effects are based on the creation of contrasts. We not only studied their contrasts – smooth-rough, hard-soft, light-heavy—visually but also explored them with our fingertips…To deepen and control the experience, students had to contemplate, touch, and raw these textures until they knew them by heart and could reproduce them out of their inner perception, without the natural model.” •2

Among the many exhibited items, the drawings that caught my eyes turned out to be Vorkurs works.

I was fascinated by these rhythmical lines and colors 

“ The teacher’s most difficult problem is the liberation and deepening of the inner spiritual sense of perception. To conduct exercises in that area one needs a very pliable, labile material which reacts immediately to the slightest motion of the hand. I used india ink brushes and soft charcoal” “The success of these studies wholly depends on the student’s ability to overcome his intellect and the function of his senses and give himself totally to spontaneous feeling. An inner automatism quite naturally gives a convincing outer form to his feelings.” 3

Johannes Itten’s ideals of education were very impressive and as a Gerrit Rietveld student, I related to that.
Itten found it difficult to judge students because they all have different talents and characters.
So the vorkurs was built, and students were able to have time to think fully about their interests and aptitudes as they went through this course. I think it is the same reason why Rietveld Academie persists in the basic year while many other schools have given it up already.
Students at Bauhaus had to explore and enlighten themselves without relying on the knowledge from the outside. Itten emphasized inner growth and self-examination, so he went back to the quest for more basic things and helped discover students’ interests and talents through them.

I felt lost when I came to the Rietveld Academie at first. I was used to the crammed Korean education, that was why it was difficult and awkward for me to think about myself and being on one’s own. Now I’m used to it and this new way of education has given me a chance to think deeply about myself.
Drawing and painting, theory, design, mixed media and sculpture, learning these five subjects, and using various workshops, I could see what I liked and disliked, or what I didn’t do well. The fairly free atmosphere of discussion and feedback also helped me broaden my horizons.

Pictures of Rietveld Academie basic year class

pictures of Bauhaus vorkurs

Interestingly, both educations seem to be exploring materials.

They have a lot in common, but the reason Bauhaus’ education seems more interesting to me is probably because of the physical exercise. Itten gave the class exercises in relation, breathing, and concentration to achieve a spiritual state and physical readiness during the instruction period.•4
He thought the training the body as an instrument of the spirit is essential to an artist’s creativity. That is why, before attempting class, the students were asked to limber up their bodies and minds by physical jerks, controlled breathing, and meditation.•5
I agree with his opinion as a yoga and meditation lover. I believe that the body and mind are connected and the brain also moves more actively when the body is ready and activated.

Imagine, wouldn’t it be more fun and energetic if we did yoga together at school or if we did weird exercises before we painted?

pictures of Bauhaus Vorkurs physical exercise

pictures of Rietveld Academie basic year class E’s aerobics performance

Maybe ‘Basicyear’ is the most important time as an artist. This is because it is an opportunity to experience many challenges and failures without constraint. So far, I have been busy just completing my assignments. After learning of Bauhaus’ educational philosophy, I began to reflect on my attitude and to think about how to deal with my work in the future. I will bear in mind the philosophy of Bauhaus, which is attentive to the sounds of body and mind, faithful to the basics and always exploring.

•1,5) Frank Whitford, Bauhaus, Thames and Hudson, 1984, London

•2,3,4) Gyorgy Kepes, Education of Vision, Studio Vista, 1965, New York

Color consequence.

As a student in the Basicyear at the Rietveld Academie I have started to discover the lack of teachings on the consequence of color. Many of the employees in the Academie I have discussed this matter with has answered (according to my perception of their given answer) that it is not an up-to-date topic. Yet I consider myself aiming at this from a painting perspective, the knowledge of color consequence is important, so it seems, also within the realm of what I define as Design. The Rietveld Academie has been described to me, during my time as a student, as it takes great pride in the use of what could be called ”The Bauhaus” model. Design and Fine arts share the same space with all of the crafts that you can fit into those two realms.  What I have started to investigate has begun to make me realize that there is color consequence to pretty much everything for someone whom has the ability to see, and is therefore of upmost importance as a subject in our education for every department in the Academy.

Johannes Itten mentions in his introduction of the book ”The Elements of Color” a simple example of how important color can be to space,

– ”The mausoleum of Galla Placidia, now at Ravenna, Italy, is dominated by a remarkable colored atmosphere of grey light. This effect is produced by bathing the blue mosaic walls of the interior in an orange light, filtered through narrow windows of orange-tinted alabaster. Orange and blue are complementary colors, the mixing of which yields gray” 1.

He goes on giving examples on how the element of color is used in other scientific professions,

– ”The physicist studies the nature of electromagnetic energy vibrations and particles involved in the phenomena of light, the several origins of color phenomena such as the prismatic dispersion of the white light and the problems of pigmentation. He investigates mixtures of chromatic light, spectra of the elements, frequencies and wave lengths of colored light rays. Measurements and classification of colors are also topics of the physical research.”

“The chemist studies the molecular structure of dyes and pigments, problems of color fastness, vehicles and preparation of synthetic dyes. Color chemistry today embraces an extraordinarily wide field of industrial research and production”.

“The physiologist investigates the various effects of light and colors on our visual apparatus-eye and brain – and their anatomical relationships and functions. Research on light -and dark- adapted vision occupies an important place. The phenomenon of afterimages is another physiological topic”.

“The psychologist is interested in problems of the influence of color radiation on our mind and spirit. Color symbolism, and the subjective perception and discrimination of colors, are important psychological problems. Expressive color effects, what Goethe called the ethic-aesthetic values of colors-likewise fall within the psychologists province.” 1.

It strikes me how color is such a essential part of our visual world that it is crucial to understand how it works, it is a very subjective matter among humans but also between species. If I look to nature I would like to state that the fundamental meaning of color is communication. Communication in the way of understanding what to avoid and not to survive.

After having some time digesting this research, having discussions with students, teachers and people whom are not professionally involved in fine arts and design, I’m starting to change my approach towards color and its consequence, also understand why color does not have the same essential role in our education as it had for the Bauhaus students. The other week my roommate had his father visiting. We were strolling around the center of Haarlem (NL) when we decided to enter The Frans Hals museum. An exhibition suggesting contemporary aspects of Frans Hals work was showing including art works by contemporary artists. One of the main focuses was the color of the walls in the museum rooms. Instead of the normally used white, changing hues of a green/yellow color represented each room. Even if I read this before entering I did not notice how the constant change of hue was effecting our approach towards the exhibition. I was very focused on analyzing the art itself, until my roommates father (my room mate had been in the same over analyzing state as me) suggested that the change of wall color had effected how we criticized the exhibition and it’s art pieces showing. It struck me that I’m so over focused on criticizing artworks that I lose perception of what else is happening around, which might suggest that my overthinking of how I use color based on the old color studies published is only an obstacle and not an asset. During painting classes after this I realized how I produce more balance with color by not thinking about the old color studies but by using my instinct. So after presenting my idea last time in class a short discussion with our design teacher ended up with him stating that our contemporary perception of color and its consequence is a common knowledge based on that the society we grow up and is now posses with a greater awareness, in difference from to what people during Itten’s time learned and experienced. Though Itten also said;

– ”For the artist, effects are decisive, rather than agents as studied by physics and chemistry. Color effects are in the eye of the beholder. Yet the deepest and truest secrets of color effect are, I know invisible even to the eye, and are beheld by the heart alone. The essential eludes conceptual formulation” 1.

We are observing the world and our reality from our perspective, the person next to you has another perception of reality. We tend to assume that the rest of the people have the same moral, same understanding and same ethics as oneself but when it comes to what is right or wrong, good or bad I would like to think that there are as many truths on this planet as there are humans. One reality for every human. All others, plants and creatures on the planet, experiencing the moment in ways not understandable to humans. This also would mean that there is one perception on color for every human, so in the end it is up to the artist to determine what purpose the colors used fits his or hers reality. Josef Albers writes in his book “Interaction of Color”,

”In order to use color effectively it is necessary to recognize that color deceives continually” 2.

Color study from the book Interaction of Color by Josef Albers. 2.

For a more contemporary (digital) approach towards color please visit “The Color Library” made by Maximage.  Maximage is a Swiss collaborative studio established in 2008 who created a website they call ”The Color Library”. You can also visit the website where it is described how color is used in the Rijksmuseum.

If you have further interest in reading about color please visit some of the other color researches at the designblog, here is also one on surface.

Additionally here is a link to a lecture on Color Theory from YouTube.

1. Johannes Itten, The Elements of Color, John Wiley and Sons Inc, Hoboken, 1970, page 9, 12 and 7.
2. Josef Albers, Interaction of color 50th anniversary, Yale University Press, London, 2013, page 1.

I saw this little guy in the library and decided to pick it up.

The first thing that caught my eye was the vibrant neon back cover of the book. It fascinated me to see something so small yell out for attention in such a violent way, almost as if it was a small Chihuahua, barking at the slightest suggestion of danger.

Having fallen for this Chihuahua’s barking, I picked it up and flipped it around, expecting it to yell as loudly as its backside did. However, I was pleasantly surprised. The front of the book showcased a multicolored illustration, displaying repetitive shapes reminiscent of a futuristic painting by Russolo. The stacked curved shapes and the black space beside them caused the illustration to look spacious, as if I was looking through a window into an unknown dimension.

The use of color was quite dimmed, though, which exaggerated the contrast between the front and the back cover. However, there wasn’t a disharmony between the two, due to similar colors being present in the illustration and the neon green corners cutting off the edges of the illustration.

Opening the book was kind of a let-down, I was expecting something as vibrant and thrilling as the cover, but the inside just looked like an ordinary book to me. I guess you really can’t judge a book by its cover! However, I’m sure the content of the book is equally as thrilling as it’s cover.

Regardless of the content, I’m still happy that I chose this book.

I decided to investigate the design a bit more in depth. On the bottom of the back cover, I found the name of the designer; Erik Carter.

With a quick Google search of the name, I found the following information on his website.

Carter is an art director and graphic designer based in California. He’s worked as a senior designer at MTV, an art director at Google and The New York Times. In a brief list of his big clients I found the name Verso Books, which is the publisher of the book I chose in the library. This gave me hope that I’d be able to find a lot of information about my little Chihuahua.

A still image from an animation Erik Carter did for BuzzFeed

Upon reading that Erik Carter worked as a designer of on-air animations for MTV, I was brought back to the afternoons in my teenage years I’d spent mindlessly watching television. A strong memory that stuck with me from those afternoons were the flashy intense animations MTV would present before and after a commercial break. I always found those animations incredibly confusing and interesting, and I’d wonder who came up with these wacky designs. This unexpected link to a memory from the past gives me the impression that I was somehow destined to find this book and research it.

I started reading articles and listening to interviews with Erik Carter, hoping to find some information about my precious little book. And then, in an interview with the “Type Directors Club” I found what I was looking for. Turns out that my book was part of a five part book series that Verso books commissioned Carter to design covers for. The covers form one continuing image when put next to each other. My book is the last book in the series, the youngest of its siblings.

In the interview, Erik Carter talked about the process of creating the covers in collaboration with the publisher. Turns out it was quite a stressful process, with many rejected ideas in the short time frame of only three weeks. Many designs he presented were found to be too busy. This eventually led him to the final design, which, while still having an energetic design, still reads as calm and somewhat minimalist.

A nice detail to the design was the story behind the background. What seemed like a mysterious space-scape to me, was actually part of a collage Carter made of advertisements he found in Playboy magazine. He explained that part of the background was actually just a distorted image of ice cubes. Knowing this, the book and its design gained an element of playfulness to me.

So here I am, knowing what I know now about this (ex-)stranger in front of me, feeling like I’ve learned its entire life-story, no secrets left to uncover. Of course this is completely untrue, since I haven’t read a single word of the book’s content.

I know the book now as a designed object, not as a bearer of information. I can’t help but feel like the book has more of an autonomous identity to me now, than if I had only read its content, even though I only looked at its cover.

Nicolas Bourriaud: The Exform. design by Åbäke, Rietveld library number: 700.6 bour 4

I CAN’T

WORK

LIKE

THIS

      I have chosen an orange book, about the size of a big holiday novel. But with a cover much more animated than a novel.

      The title in bold immediately intrigued me: I CAN NOT WORK LIKE THIS. The title is a point of view, an affirmation, rather mysterious, in any case attractive, which challenges us, and that we want to understand by opening the book. Who is it? What work? What prevents who to work? And what does this negation mean? Is it an edgy, or paranoid character?

      The typography of the title and the first pages, is impersonal, an imposing typo: Helvetica. But page after page, we discover a set of typography that become more and more specific and personal. First a novel writing: The Times New Roman; then the typographic style of a typewriter: ADLER; and finally, handwritten characters.

        The paragraphs are changing too. At the beginning, they are inserted seriously and strictly to the right of the pages. Then the paragraphs come to life, and bend in every direction; some follow the form of images; others are divided in the same way as on the pages of an agenda. Each time the titles are put forward, they are imposing, and have an important line before the beginning of the paragraph.

        Unlike typography and paragraph, images retain their homogeneity and conductive line throughout the book. These are the torn paper effects that surround the images, and organize the book as a collage. Some images are not limited to pages, and may overflow and continue on the next page. All images are in black and white. Only the cover has color (orange). These images mix a little all times, and all media. These are both old letters, drawings and photos, but also screen shots of Facebook conversations or emails. This kaleidoscope of images and times makes us lose ourselves in time. There are also many scans of manuscripts, with arrows in all directions, words over-lined or surrounded to follow the reasoning of the creator.

      The spine of the book also deserves a comment, because the drawing on the borders of pages overflows and bleeds from the pages. These are black lines that remind of tearing of the book. This creates a dotted pattern when looking at the book from the side which is also convenient for finding your way in the book, since they indicate a beginning of chapters.

        Everything looks like a patchwork. Looking at the graphic designer’s chart, Krysztof Pyda, you immediately recognize the spirit that has imagined the book. The instagram of the designer is indeed a collection of images, and it is exactly this same idea, this same visual ensemble that one finds in his book. It is a multitude of documents, more or less connected at first sight, but which are connected by arrows, handwritten indications, which gradually make us enter into the intimacy of the creator. That’s why I chose this book: it intrigued me like an intimate diary. Each page is a surprise, each time more personal than the previous one.

            In deepening a little more, I realized that it was a book whose subject was about art and politics. First, the subtitle clearly tells us: A READER ON RECENT BOYCOTTS AND CONTEMPORARY ART. Then, the purpose is clarified with images mixing political slogans, caricatures, works of art, photos of events, maps of the world. These images are connected to each other by arrows; some parts of the documents are broken. We enter into the imagination of the creator, having the impression of following the path of her research and her thought. The reader does not read a book whose purpose is purely political, but is drawn to the point of view and the vision of the creator. These are not speeches with dates and facts, as we could see in an history book. They are pieces of image, texts, full of documents, where each page expresses, strengthens and defends the general idea and the point of view of its creator.

           This book immediately reminded me of my sketchbooks and research books. I work a lot with collages, snippets of images, and my notebooks are also disparate collections of papers, covered with drawings and handwriting. All the papers I keep in this notebook have for me a story, show something of our generation, even if they are as everyday and innocuous as for example cash receipts or or transport tickets. All in any case are related to the places I cross, to people I met, all remind me of a particular moment. On each page, I play with the composition, an image in the foreground completes that from below.

I CAN NOT WORK LIKE THIS, is a book that I loved to turn the pages, flip, flip, stop, first for visual pleasure, but also to try to understand how it is organized, graphically. The creator really plunges the reader into his most personal research, his thoughts and his points of view, like an intimate diary.

Joanna Warsza : I Can't Work Like This a reader on recent boycots and contemporary art. designer: Krysztof Pyda, Rietveld Library Cat. no: 700.7 war 1

It is said that you can’t judge a book by its cover. Can you, then, judge a book by its spine? 

Without even reading what was actually written on its spine, my attention was already drawn to the book “Panamarenko: Workstation Biekorfstraat” through the way it was presented to me; acting as a successful gateway to everything that it had to offer in terms of material. As a piece that was advocated for and supported by the Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, the designers, the duo Van Looveren & Princen, no doubt had a great responsibility on them when tasked to design the book. This becomes evident by looking at even the connective piece between the cover and back-cover that stuck out of the bookshelf, ready to be chosen.

An olive-green, textured fabric, wrapped and spanning from part of the front cover to part of the back cover, with the two separate pieces of text coming together to form the greater title. The two texts are as similar as they are different; One is presented in a care-free and playful manner through its stylized font, as if handwritten, whereas the other gives of a much more stern vibe as if passing an ode to the typewriting system with its more ridged typeface. However they find common ground and confide in each other in the manner that they seamlessly contrast the fabric on top of which they are placed by being left blank in regards to their colour. The use of a more casual and characteristic typeface for the first part of the title of the book presented me with a very personal impression of the contents that the pages would contain, almost intimate; almost as if the artist himself entered the room and wrote his name on top of the spine (Despite this, this does not relate to Panamarenko’s signature). This is then contrasted by the continuation of the book title which is shown in a much more organized in presence, which made it a lot more clear upon even the first glance that everything that was to be presented inside would be done so with an approach aimed to provide a sort of guidance and structure.

In fact, the book does exactly so with its material – providing a very extensive list of everything the artist contained in his house in an, at times, almost satirical catalogue-like manner. This plays well into the duo’s style of work, which tends to present a plethora of objects in a very efficient and condensed style, as can be noticed by some of their other works. The book itself focuses on the preservation of the entirety of the artist’s workspace, which acted as a his hub for creativity from 1970-2002, acting as a means of casting light on the creative process of the artist’s works; Most of which noteworthy for their science–fiction inspired, machine like structures. The title, as such, give off a strong idea of what was to be shown, by presenting the actual street address >Biekorfstraat< in which the house was situated, in addition to providing the purpose of the house as a workstation.

Despite looking through the book prior to taking it up to the librarian to have it chosen, the simple yet effective presentation of the spine drew me to it as though it exposed the entirety of its contents to me all at once, and opened the world of Panamarenko to me. It was not just the textured fabric, only the typefaces and simply the contrast that drew me to choosing the book, but a combination of all three, indicating that the spine of the book was not a quick idea thought up by Van Looveren and Princen, but rather an important aspect of the book which was deeply thought of before being put into final production.

Willemse, Hans; Baere, Bart De; Coulon, Didier; Deleu, Luc; Willemse, Hans: Panamarenko, Workstation Biekorfstraat. design by Van Looveren & Princen, Rietveld library number: pan 9

I chose the book Ethical Actions: A Critical Fine Art Practice based on it’s size and colour.
There is a whole section in the middle of the book which is red and the cover has this mystical redness to it.
The book being a red thread I grabbed and then tried to find this red thread throughout the book.
I have been very attracted to the colour red lately and it has been like a red thread in my life having lured me towards it.
I wear a red coat and red glasses and I feel the best if I am wearing the colour red from head to toe. For me the colour red reminds me of something warm. Maybe by being so drawn to the colour I might be getting closer to something of value in life. Getting warmer.

Getting back to the book from the colour red I get so distracted by the book is very convenient both in size and shape.

Fits well in your hand. It’s quite a decent thickness and I like how therefor the pages are matte and quite sturdy. It has quite a strong interior. The overall design and layout is quite clean and well-balanced by text and images which are given enough room to breathe. It also helped that the artist was a woman and the editor are women.
The book is designed by a design practice called Julia.
Here I leave a link to their website but there you can see several images from the book. These images will give you a good idea about what this text is about or the content and layout of the book.

https://julia.studio/project/monica-ross/

                                                http://www.lespressesdureel.com/EN/ouvrage.php?id=5207&menu=

The publication fully documents Ross’s works from the year 1970 to 2013. She worked with video, drawing, installation and text.

She was very socially engaged and a feminist. Her artwork is know for being very performative. Her work is said to have left  a deep effect on contemporary art and society.

When you open the book quickly you can see that it is divided into three sections.
The first section appears to be essays about the artist Monica Ross, by other well known theorists and artists. For each essay there is a lot of space given to the title, the name of the people writing the essay and a photo which seems to be of a piece or an artwork related to the content of each essay.
The first spread before each essay, introducing individual writer with a name of the author and the photograph, are all design in the same way.

The essays themselves on the other hand are either placed vertical, situated in the middle of each page or horizontal, spread over two pages. Some of the essays also have photographs intertwined in the text.
Then we are situated in the exact middle of the book where there is a bunch of red pages. On these pages is a critical text, piece or an essay written by the artist. The text is situated on the left and is written in the style of a prose or a poem.
The colour red seems intentional because when you look at the pages on the inside of the cover of the book, they are also red. So in a way it is like she, the artist, runs through the book. Like a red thread. With the red pages opening, closing and centering the content.
In the second half, the third section of the book, are photographs of works by the artist.

It seems to be more informative and is very clearly sectioned. It is easy to find what the reader might be looking for. A summary of all the works with small pictures and a short text that seems to be information about each artwork. Then the paper changes from matte to slightly more glossy and the photographs of the works are printed bigger so the reader gets the opportunity to observe them. Most of the photographs seemingly being documentation of her performances.
Like I said earlier the book is mostly printed on matte pages. Including the cover. The font is in most cases the same and very approachable to the reader.
Between each section there is enough space that gives the reader time or room to breathe or to contemplate or appreciate the content throughout the book highlighting the essays and the artists work as separate peaces. This book is said to be a valuable art-historical document and is designed in a very accessible way.

Monica Ross : ethical actions: a critical fine art practice , designer: Julia, Rietveld Library Cat. no: ros, m 1

Who said books should look like books ?

To conclude, If we break down the word knowledge we see the words know ledge and no ledge. Maybe this is a sign that we can expand our horizons towards a more creative and compelling environment when it comes to the shape of books, bookshelves and technology as a whole.

Bedwyr Williams: ECHT/70°. design by Åbäke, Rietveld library number: williams 1

… and as I grab you and pull you closer to me, to get a better look of you, to face you, I feel instant disgust.

Disgust.

Maybe that is too strong of a word. It’s not like the look of you make me want to let go of you, not immediately.

Discomfort. The opposite of comfort. Suits quite well.

Dis-comfort. Dis-com-fort.

So, we stand here, face to face. I don’t even try to hide my feeling of discomfort. Don’t have to.

Look at you.

You look sick. Interesting but sick. You clearly don’t know how to match colours. Your choice of colours tells me you are a try-hard. I mean, who matches ‘vomit yellow’ with ‘lame blue’?  You try to be the funny guy. Well, guess what? It’s not working. Your failed attempt is your greatest joke. Your reversed definition of the 80’s “Business in the front, party in the back” looks like a sad joke that wasn’t meant to be a joke.

Alright, so you want to be special, to stand out.  And I want a good laugh so you’ve got my full attention.

I let my fingers caress your face. My left hand supports your neck while my right hand explores the surface of your skin and all your edges. My index finger softly touches what seems to be your nose hoping to find some kind of depth. But you don’t have much depth, do you?

How disappointing.

You want to provoke me. And I am provoked. How weak of me.

I want to get to know you. Enlighten me. Please.

You start to open up, with my help of course. You grab my hand and tell me a story. A story I recognize inside of me. Your double-sided sense of humour is cute.

I can’t wait to get to know you better. You make me such a cliché.

To find out who you are, to get to know you better, I will have to do some research about your creator, your God, your inventor and designer.

And quickly I find out you are all one and the same person.

The man and the book. The book and the man.

I’ve already made the mistake of judging you by your cover and I won’t make the same mistake with your master.

Well, maybe you didn’t want to be judged exactly but your creator sure wanted to catch my attention.

So, who are you, great creator?

Both the designer and the artist, I see. Or maybe the artist and the designer.

You choose to have give written words but a title and a “thank you”.

As a performer and a photographer, you don’t need words. You tell stories with pictures. I get that.

But I must admit it makes me wonder. Many questions appear. So, I wrote you an e-mail. Know that I am looking forward for you to get back to me with some answers.

Still I feel like I know you quite well through my research.

Funny, isn’t it? I know you but you don’t know me.

You reveal so much of yourself and you almost eager for it. In that way, we are very alike.

We are quite connected to be honest.

First of all, through the academy;

“At the Rietveld academy, we are bit like a family”said the man who made a speech on my first day at school.

I agree with that, brother. You had your first day 40 years before me, maybe another man said something similar that day.

As I mentioned before you are a photographer. Guess which department I’m going into after Basic year…

Inside of you I found this photograph.

A man laying in bed, naked. On top of him there is a mirror. His face is hidden and the mirror makes a distortion to his body.

Now let me describe you a photograph I made for the home assignment for the entrance exam.

My littlebrother laying in bed, wearing nothing but stockings. On top of him there is a mirror. His face is hidden and the mirror makes a distortion to his body.

Yes, I definitely understand you.

My teacher told me you are having an exhibition soon. I wanted to look up where this exhibition will take place. But I forgot. Not that I don’t care, I promise.

I just have many things on my mind, you seem like the kind of guy who understands.

But let me tell you what happened:

So, I went to get a piece of cake here the other day. A café near the academy.

As I walked to the café I came across a corner shop with some interesting art pieces laying around the floor and some masks hanging from the ceiling.

Your masks.

The masks you already showed me the first time I took that square piece of you down from the library shelf.

What are the chances? I could have gone to any cafes, any directions, away from you. But you wanted to show me the masks in real life, didn’t you?

Masks. Why masks? Who are you trying to hide from?

I would never use masks. In that way, we are very different. Or maybe not too different. You see, I put on a specific face when I take self-portraits. So, in a way that is a mask too.

Maybe you will give me an answer when we meet up in the near future, Ton.

When you find out that I exist.

?: ?. design by Ton, Rietveld library number: 21620 1

The Alphabet book seemed an interesting choice among other publications that the Rietveld Library had acquired last year (2018) because it is an odd book at first glance. It is very different from most books you might come across in a library. There are only eight pages, yet each of those pages is nearly 3mm thick and made of cardboard. The book is slightly larger than A4. Another thing that sets this book apart is that there is no title on the front of the book but rather on the bottom of the spine. You can also find the title on the Kunstverein website. What really strikes me about this book is that each page has one image of an alphabet. In total six different alphabets are shown. Each alphabet is from 1971 or 1972. The ‘Alphabets’ series was a project originally initiated by Vincent Trasov and Michael Morris. The artists who created these alphabets all seem to have an alter ego of sorts, the most prominent being ‘Mr Peanut’ which is an alias for Vincent Trasov. He dons a peanut suit inspired by ‘Mr. Peanut’ which is a logo and character made famous by ‘Planters’ a company which sells processed nuts, mainly peanuts. The reason Trasov’s alias Mr. Peanut is more prominent is because of his run for the 1974 Vancouver civic election, where he dressed up in his peanut costume. He ran on the platform of ‘PEANUT’. ;- “Trasov was persuaded to don the costume as a symbol for the collective aspirations of the art community and run for mayor in the 1974 Vancouver civic election on the art platform: P for Performance, E for Elegance, A for Art, N for Nonsense, U for Uniqueness and T for Talent.”. Trasov received 2685 votes accounting for 3.4% of the total vote. Trasov could not likely have really thought he was going to win but this would serve as a satire on the political climate of the time. Canada in that time went through a period of political unrest and economic difficulty. What made his candidacy even more interesting is that he did not utter a single word. Mr. Peanut became a kind of walking sculpture. The talking was left to his campaign manager John Mitchell.

In 1972 Trasov and Morris using their Imagebank (sort of collective) hired a silkscreen printer and printed the Peanut Alphabet. One of the people I spoke to at Kunstverrein speculated that the alphabet project was an exploration of visual language via the alphabet as a kind of study. At the time the hopes of Morris and Trasov was that this project would become larger than it really did. They invited some artists to create alphabets as representation of this language they where exploring. These alphabets also had a correlation to their alter egos in some way. At that time you would have been considered to be a part of the status quo if you did not have an alias for your work. So in some way to keep up a certain authenticity these artists felt they had to have an alter ego, and so it is only logical they would strive to create an alternative language that went against the status quo in the art community that they did not want to associate themselves with. At the same time artists in Canada Including Trasov and Morris, found themselves in a period of immense sharing of ideas with like-minded artists, this created systems and networks for artists to share these ideas even before the internet. Morris says that their survival as artists even depended on these networks.

‘The Alphabet Book’ was designed by Marc Hollenstein who does most of the design for Kunstverein publications. The Individuals I spoke with at Kunstverein are a student and Rietveld Academy alumni . For the most part I did not have to ask them any questions since they had allot to say about the book, but one thing that interested me about the publication was the thickness of the pages. They told me that this was a kind of suggestion of the volume the book could have been in regards to Morris and Trasov wanting this project to be larger than it ended up becoming.

In a way you could see ‘the alphabet project’ as a tragic comedy. There are these satirical elements, a strive to share ideas, and artistic work yet, a certain failure in the exact systems these artists  tried to create in a pre-internet society that in reality faced a similar political and economic climate that we face today. The difference today maybe that satire is so relevant yet so irrelevant, we live in a society where the satire has potentially become reality, at least in political terms. This does not take away from the work and ideals behind the project, maybe it would have taken a different direction in a post internet society. The most ironic thing about this project is maybe the fact it never became so big is what makes it so interesting.

Also if anyone has a couch that isn’t straight apparently the designer of ‘The Alphabet book’ Marc Hollenstein is looking for one because he has a non square living room.

Vincent Trasov: The Alphabet Book. design by Marc Hollenstein, Rietveld library number: tras 1

I saw a forest green spine, it was worn down so much that cracks and edges showed the plain white colour of paper. I thought to myself this book has gone through a lot. I picked it up and revealing the cover, it consisted of this same green, this forest green, nothing apart from the name Marthe Wery. All capital font in white the same white the cracks and edges consisted of. I curiously flicked through, this tattered book comforted me like my grandparents, I felt accepted no matter how much knowledge I held. As I flicked through I saw a blur of red, blue then green. The same green as the cover. I then chose to start from the beginning and saw text, the text was in two columns covering the pages, some pages held photographs of art by the artist Wery and others a combination of both text and photographs. The majority of the photographs are in black and white and showed drawings or paintings. I never choose to read about the artists work when I go to see an exhibition and so I chose to follow my gut instinct and look at the artists work without reading the text. I again felt a sense of comfort by the art, like I didn’t have any pressure to completely comprehend it, I enjoyed the pieces without having a real understanding of it, the dark charcoal drawings drew me in and then red filled the pages with different tones and shades on every page. Abruptly interrupted by grey text and photographs and then blue tones filled the next pages until again it was interrupted by text and photographs. Finally the comforting green filled the pages and I started to realize this was the book I wanted to write about. Have you ever felt as though you were invisible in this world or merely blend in?. This book felt like this to me however, even if you have felt like that, others might find comfort and gratification in you and this is how this book made me feel and it all started with that forest green and an unexplainable link to my grandparents.

I started my research in search of the designer of this mysterious book. First I found out that this was a catalogue for Wery’s exhibition in The Hague in 1986. I began searching for catalogues published in 1986 or similar years from The Hague to see if there was a consistent pattern of the design but couldn’t find anything. I then started investigating the publisher hoping they worked with the designer or designed the book himself/herself.n Lebeer Hossmann was the publisher, and only published catalogues.

Continuing my research, I concluded that the design and layout of the catalogue portrayed Wery’s work in an intimate form. It was not created to be aware of the design but to highlight the work inside. This I find very humble because a catalogue should be to highlight the work of the artist not the designer. Where as many catalogues design overtakes the artist’s work and become a piece of its own. The format to have the three sections of the book filled pages of the different tones of red, blue and green struck me because I felt as though I was seeing the work through Wery’s eyes. There is no border or text to distract me, it is there to speak for itself, which similarly Wery’s work is. Wery was famous for her minimalism and she studied the different tone and shades of colour, putting together long or rectangle canvases next to each other consisting of the same colour with the variety of tones. Her point was to test the space and architecture with her pieces making it a whole. The majority of the photographs of Wery’s work are in black and white, this challenges the reader when connecting to her work due to the main purpose, colour. This only emphasize the photos and coloured filled pages more, when you came across which then has more effect in fact. The bleakness of the B&W photographs in contrast to the coloured also brings her sense of space making us readers more aware of how colour can affect space outside the art. In an interview at the back of the book Enno Develing describes her work as “earthy” and on first inspection could seem severe, however on closer inspection radiates an intense warmth…undoubtedly has to do with “the pleasure” she takes in the materials. I felt this warmth when I first spotted the forest green spine and now understand that this ‘forest green’ is meant to be more than just a green for a cover, but to overcome just the form of a book and that is what it did for me.


Marthe Wery: Marthe Wery. design by unknown, Rietveld library number: wery 1

ARTISTS' COCKTAILS by Ryan Gander

This small and light book is bounded with a hard cover, but also covered with a soft non-glossy finished paper so that it gives you a soft touchiness. Before you open the book, you can see the side of the paper has colored yellow, orange and fluorescent pink as you can see the same layers on the book cover. As the book has the theme of a cocktail, when the book is opened, the layered colors from both sides of the paper surround the text as the color spreads in the glass like a cocktail. Fun. In the text, the shape of the little letter ‘g’ seemed to simulate a water droplet. A fluorescent pink color was used was used to accentuate parts of the text. If you look into the images, you will notice that those are all different in size, layout and content, but the contents are all corresponded to the cocktail recipes introduced later. These layouts allow me to cross the front and back of the book and engage me to participate more actively.

This book was designed by Åbäke with Delphine Bourit. On the back cover of the book has the names of more people who participated, and for the first, there is Åbäke. Åbäke. Åbäke.

Who then is Åbäke?

Åbäke is a London-based collective of four graphic designers. Patrick Lacey from the UK, Kajsa Ståhl from Sweden, Benjamin Reichen and Maki Suzuki from France. They have been working together since 2000 after studying at Royal College of Art in London.

If you know Swedish language then you would smile at the name of the studio, because it means ‘clumsy’ in Swedish, but it also has the meaning of ‘ghost’ in Japanese language.
They have worked on magazine Sexymachinery(2000–2008), restaurant Trattoria(2003), the publishing project Dent-De-Leone(2009), the propaganda Victoria & AlferD Museum(2010) and so on.

© Shift [left] © Maison Martin Margiela / Åbäke[right]

Active since 2000, they have collaborated with many Galleries and with fashion designers such as Hussein Chalayan and Maison Martin Margiela, artists such as Ryan Gander, Johanna Billing, and bands such as Daft Punk. If you search more about them, you will find out that they are the co-founder of Kitsuné.

Kitsuné is well known as ‘Maison Kitsuné’, which is French fashion label. Åbäke established Kitsuné in 2001 with Masaya Kuroki and Gildas Loaëc.

Masaya Kuroki and Gildas Loaëc  © Maison Kitsuné

At the beginning, Kitsuné was French electronic music record label. Gildas Loaëc is French DJ who was the manager and art director of Daft Punk. He met Japanese-French designer Masaya Kuroki when he went to watch ’interstellar 5555 (Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem – produced by Daft Punk, Cédric Hervet and Emmanuel de Buretel with Toei Animation under the supervision of Leiji Matsumoto)’.  They found their common interest and made the label together with Åbäke.

Kitsuné, which already has a large fan base in Europe and the U.S., begun to be recognized as a fashion label in 2005, showing their first fashion collection and the mixed album ‘Compilation Kitsuné Maison 1’ at the same time at ‘Palais de Tokyo’, one of the famous museums in Paris.

Following the website of Maison Kitsuné, “Maison” is the French word for “house”, and “Kitsuné” is the Japanese word for “fox”, a symbol of versatility.

Fox symbol logo of Maison Kitsuné  © Maison Kitsuné

As the fox possesses the power to change its appearance in the Legend, Maison Kitsuné always has been tried to adapt its repertoire according to inspiration. The philosophy that Maison Kitsune pursues is that they try to change their material and style freely according to their inspiration, as their name suggests, it is quite similar to what Åbäke is doing.

If you follow the steps of Åbäke, then you will see much of their projects were coming together with concentrations on the social aspect and the collaboration. Their events usually comes with different sources like film, dancing, eating and cooking and teaching. They are also singers, painters, photographers, members of bands, furniture designers, curators, fashion designers, DJs and teachers. These are also happening at Kitsuné. They are usually coming up with collaborations between different fields as well.

Just as Åbäke runs many workshops with students along with their own projects, Kitsuné is creating their own thing while also discovering and growing artists. Further more, as Åbäke collaborates with agencies and artists, Kitsuné is also performing collaboration with artists and fashion labels. Although their fields are not quite the same, it is clear that they inspire each other.

In the interview with Japan-based international online magazine ‘Shift’, In 2003, Åbäke said that with Kitsuné they are able, because of their different fields of knowledge, to work in music, clothes and events.

I seem that it is important to talk about Kitsuné when I looked at Åbäke because they have different shapes, but same steps to each other. I am still waiting for the reply from Åbäke that I asked about Kitsuné, but I think there is no doubt that this one big galaxy -Kitsuné- is definitely the greatest cocktail of Åbäke.

Ryan Gander: Artists' Coctail. designed by Åbäke, Rietveld library number: gand 5

Grey is everywhere. Grey is the sky, the concrete of buildings, the street and its tiles, the walls of the room I am now sitting in, steel linings of windows, many pieces of clothing, the hairs of aging people –

There are many shades of grey, colder and warmer ones. Grey can be defined as the colour between black and white. It can also be seen in a slightly more abstract way as colorlessness, being undefined, without character.

Several definitions of the word grey are:

• Without interest or character; dull or nondescript
• Not accounted for in official statistics
• (of a person’s face) pale, as through tiredness, age or illness
• (of the weather) cloudy and dull[1]

What all these definitions have in common is that they, in some sense, refer to an absence. It is the absence of color, of character, of definition – it is a lack of capacity to be interesting.

So why would anyone ever choose the color grey for something they made? Would this then be for the object to go as unnoticed as possible? Would it be to suggest neutrality?

THE BOOK

I found a book in the library that was completely covered in grey. The grey enfolded the text and the images that were inside, also filled the empty pages in between. The sides of the pages were grey, as was the cover, so that the book looked like a tile.

It was called “Power?… To which people?!”. It was a book about the Dutch artist Jonas Staal and contained a collection of essays and images related to the work of this artist. The graphic designer was called Laura d’Ors.

The greyness of the book was so dominant that I could not get past it. Although the content seemed interesting and I was somehow

tempted to read some pages and look into the images in detail, I mostly kept turning it around, covering my eyes in the grey that was all over.

I think the grey put a kind of silence around the book that made it into a very solid object. It was such a big visual decision that it forced me to relate to it

before relating to the book itself .

I found myself just flipping the pages in search for more grey, tracing the surfaces that I found with my fingers. I found the colour was also very present in some images in the book. Because of their connection with the cover that had struck me, these images stood out to me more than the other images that were in the book.

It took me a while to realize that the text was written in the same grey. Contrasting with the white background, it looked somewhat darker. I only realised its greyness when there was a big symbol placed next to it in the same colour.

THIS GREY

So what was the grey of this book exactly like?

I think a picture will never show the colour right as I saw it. It was a cold tone, with some hints of blue in it. It reminded me of the Rietveld grey, the colour that is used to paint the walls of the academy. It had the same natural and deep, yet cold quality.

Still, it was different from the Rietveld grey. It seemed less accessible. It was not a colour you could walk into. It was not a colour you would put on a wall. I think it was less green than the Rietveld grey. It was a bit darker as well.

WHY?

To come back to the question I posed earlier: why would anyone ever choose grey for something they made?

In the case of the book there are two aspects of the choice. The first one has to do with the excessive use of the colour. If another colour, for example green, would have been used in the same way that now grey was used, this would have equally caught my attention.

Now, let’s imagine it was green; what would this then result in? I think I would have thought that it would be a book about nature. Or imagine it was red; what kind of associations would that give? It could be about violence, love, blood…

The encapsulating of a book in one colour the way it was done here, immediately results in questions from the reader: why is it like this?

So why then did the designer choose grey? This is a hard question to answer, because associations with grey very often relate to backgrounds, such as walls and skies. Seeing it in such a prominent position where it is taking a lot of attention, is confusing.

Maybe that’s exactly the reason why she chose this colour – it is an anti-colour; like I said, a kind of absence. It puts the book into a background and by that enfolds it in the greyness of the world. It becomes part of the sky, the concrete and steel. It doesn’t have a colour to speak, it has a colour to be. To be a thing.

[1]Oxford dictionary

Jonas Staal: Power?… To Which People?!. design by Laura d’Ors, Rietveld library number: staa 1

The following text is based on an interview I had with designer Adriaan Mellegers and the artist Emmeline de Mooij about the book "Art in Therapy", design, art and the relationship between those two fields.

Adriaan Mellegers

Emmeline de Mooij

Yelske Luit

So how did you start making this book? I assume Centraal Museum Utrecht wanted a book after Emmeline’s work?

They wanted a book because I did a series of performances commissioned by them, and of course nothing physical remained after this piece. So we really wanted a good record of this work.

Was it immediately clear that Adriaan was going to design it?

Yes, I think I immediately proposed that. I could decide everything myself; who made the book, who filmed etc.

     Edwin Jacobs, the former director of the museum, really trusted us with this project, it was like a warm bath.

  But I think that’s one of the positive sides of working for yourself or with friends. When you have a client, they can sometimes differ in their vision or ideas.

That can be interesting, but it can also go badly.

So where do you start, when you have this open slate?

   The project had a quite clear structure, and it was quickly clear that we wanted to have the text from the five performances in two languages [Dutch and English]. So it was a lot of text.

         We also had some film stills and portraits from the performance.

     So those are your “ingredients”, your content, and then you start thinking about what kind of book you want. That process is partly conceptual and partly intuitive.

I thought it would be cool if it had a monumental size, quite big, because it would refer to a patient dossier.

I chose to represent the text very clear. The two languages have a different font, but they come from the same font family, Trivia.

I made the letters bigger, to convey some intimacy.

And while he thinks of all this stuff, how much have you [Emmeline] been involved? Do you give feedback after the decision is made, or do you make it together?

I left it up to him, but he showed it a lot during the progress. I was very happy you could think of those things, like that the photos should be on a different paper.

But we still talked about it a lot. There was hardly anything that I didn’t like.

Did it ever happen that you saw a design for your work and you felt like it didn’t look right, or didn’t represent your work? Or does it almost become a work in itself?

Yes it does happen, but it’s usually something small.

I think you’re quite flexible.

I think it’s important to let go when you involve someone else. That you don’t control the other person, give them freedom.

So you also give some autonomy to the designer?

Yes. But it still has to communicate what you initially wanted. It can’t suddenly go in a different direction, so I have to be clear about what the story is.

So that is the risk you take by doing that. You can give them freedom, but you can’t just let it happen. 

I can imagine it’s very different with a client.

Very much so. When it’s an institutional client, they have a more clear vision or policy of how they want to communicate. You always have to get in a discussion if your idea or vision could happen.

It’s also often a lot more political, because there are other interests and parties involved.

So you could say that in the relationship between art and design, when you work for an artist the story is up to the artist, but how it is communicated is more up to the designer. However when you work with a client, this how is also controlled by the client?

It’s possible in both options, it has a lot to do with how you work as a designer. I want people to work with me because they think I make good works, not just because I provide a service.

When you work with an institutional client, you want them to have the same attitude. But there are a lot of interests at play, so sometimes the collaboration goes smoothly, and other times it doesn’t. That’s part of it. 

It can both be fun though, and I wouldn’t want to only work for artist, because those processes can last a very long time.

And I like the challenge of working for an institution, and that the end product is seen by a lot of people.

So working with both, the variety is pleasant.

Emmeline de Mooij: Art in Therapy. design by Adriaan Mellegers, Rietveld library number: 708.4 the 1

The book I chose for my research is a book that probably doesn’t catch the eye of many people who pass it. With a relatively simple cover and a design that most people at a glance would brush over as conservative, straightforward or maybe even boring, Rosemarie Trockel’s exhibition catalogue about her exhibition “post-menopause” may seem like an odd choice for a design research essay but upon further inspection the design reveals itself to be quite rich and complex.
Maybe it makes sense to start with the outside, the part of the book that you inevitably will see first when you meet it.
On the cover you can see a picture of a big installation work called “yes, but”. The way Yvonne Quirmbach (the designer of the book) chose to present the work makes it feel more like a 2 dimensional graphic work or painting than the huge installation it actually was but it serves the purpose of making a graphically interesting and simple cover. Other than the image the front cover also contains the name of the artist and the exhibition in the upper corner. If you take off the dust cover (that has said image on it) the “actual” cover of the book is blank white with just the name of the artist and exhibition in the same spot as on the outside cover. One interesting detail is if you take the the dust cover out and look at it there is a little caption for the picture you will only see if you actually take the cover off.

There, also is a caption for another work which it says is inside. The dust cover actually unfolds and there is a poster of a big installation/collage inside but except for that already pretty hidden caption there is nothing that gives that away. I myself only discovered this totally by accident after I had the book for over a week already.

This is a good example of one of the hidden details this book has in it. It really wants you to explore it but never pushes you to. Instead it gives you space to do so.
So let’s get into it.
When you open the book you’re gonna encounter its title together with some short basic info which is placed in the center but aligned to flush left. A subtle choice that also gets masked by the fact that each line only contains at most a couple of words. The designer is playing with the blank space here using it to give the text some room to breathe without making it appear to monolithic which could be the case if it (the text) was fully justified.

Over at the next page you will find the table of contents. The arrangement of the text remains the same but this time it becomes a lot more visible because the page is more filled and some lines of text even reach the outer margin of the page. Still the aesthetic that got introduced on the previous page gets maintained and overall it is not only pleasant to look at but also easy to read because you can start reading in the center. This praxis of introducing a design element to the reader in a subtle way and then building on it further is a recurring theme in the way the book is designed.
A good example of this is the way the book handles the element of the box within a text in the text centric parts. The book contains some longer texts which could lead to long visually uninteresting passages but Yvonne Quirmbach introduces a simple element that breaks up the monotony of it. This element is a rectangular box which she places in the center of the two text columns. The first two texts are just a greeting and a foreword so as I see it more of an appendage than part of the content of the book. To communicate this in a visual way the designer uses the boxes. For these two, lets say minor texts, the boxes just contain a single word that describes the function of the text and sort of are a title as well (Greetings, Foreword). For the first text that is actually part of the content (in the way I interpret it at least) she then changes it with a slightly wider box, containing the name of the author of the text as well as the title, all in bold capitalized letters. She keeps the width and the capitalized type in the next text but changes it up with two different sizes, the bigger one being noticeably bigger than the one used before. The two texts are quite far apart from each other within the book though so a lot of readers probably won’t notice the difference in size so much.

As you can see she gradually explores the usage of these boxes and builds on it without overwhelming the reader. She continues to explore them further by using them for footnotes and then also for text related images. She introduces new elements slowly taking her time with each, introducing one after the other to subtly lead the reader through the book. This approach is also mirrored in other aspects of the design of the book like the presentation and arrangement of the pictures.
Her design choices in general don’t make any judgement about the work, they are plain while still offering variety. Yvonne Quirmbach makes a statement by not “over designing” the book and making her choices minimal but noticeable to observant readers. She is inviting the reader to take a closer look at the content, drawing people in through small almost hidden details rather than attention grabbing imagery. I want to continue this legacy by inviting you to look into Rosemarie Trockel’s work as I think it offers a lot.

Rosemarie Trockel: Post-Menopause. design by Yvonne Quirmbach, Rietveld library number: 754.2 tro 5