Page 50 - Studio International - April 1973

the office in 1921, and it was Berlage who had
introduced him to the Board of Directors of the
Dutch Cable Works (NKF) in Delft. Between
1923 and 1933 Piet Zwart designed most of the
company's publicity, including almost three
hundred typographic advertisements. A few
examples of what he used to call his 'printed
ephemera' will serve to illustrate his conception
of the use of typography.2
Although he had been designing letterheads
and publicity leaflets since the end of 1921, the
new commissions from NKF made him realize
that he knew nothing about printing techniques
or the possibilities of typography. 'The first
drawing for an advertisement I did completely
in ink. But since the magazine for which it was
intended appeared before I had finished the
drawing, I realized that this was not the proper
method. I picked up the principles of typography
from an eighteen-year-old printer's devil in a
Piet Zwart 1885, is known chiefly as a typographic designer. small office. During the lunch hour I would
Outside the Netherlands Piet Zwart, born in
show him my sketches and together we puzzled
But, as a quotation from 1926 indicates, out the possibilities of setting them in type. I
started without the slightest idea of typography
typography was only part of his daily work : and did not even know what the expression
Kees Broos . . . I have a lot of advertising work, but I do it "lower case" meant'.3
by way of recreation.' This pastime eventually Between 1922 and 1925, Zwart's typography
brought him into the ranks of the 'pioneers of shows a distinct dadaist touch. He would mix
modern typography'. I three or four different type faces of all sizes
Rather than give an outline of his work and weights into a cheerful whole. Sometimes
between 1910 and 195o, I should like to focus on one heavy visual element (a big, fat letter or
six years : 1925-193o. Six years that were symbol) is contrasted with a text in small type,
crammed with a wide variety of activities in the to attract maximum attention. As he went on,
field of design and highly productive for the elements became simpler, with fewer
typography. With many artists of the twenties
and thirties, Piet Zwart shared an undaunted heterogeneous elements. Although witty
inventions kept trickling through, the
approach to new and unexpected problems in
construction is always clear and sharply defined;
design. the use of asymmetry and diagonals makes his
In 1925 Piet Zwart was chief assistant to
H. P. Berlage, the most important and influential advertisements spring out from among its
A comprehensive exhibition of Piet Zwart's work Dutch architect to date, who was then almost traditional neighbours. The paper loses its
is at the Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, function as neutral background and supplies
March 3o-July 6 seventy but still very active. Zwart had joined
its white colour as an active element of the
design.
When one examines the best of these NKF
ads, it is hard to discern any self-imposed
typographic rules. In the main, they profit from
the visual possibilities that could be distilled
from the available text. Alliterations, assonances,
repetition of words, and the shapes of letters,
served as springboards for the development of
striking, purely typographic effects. This
practice reminds one of El Lissitzky's
statement: 'The design of book space . . . must
correspond to the tensions of pressure and pull
within the contents.'4
Except for NKF, there were no commissions
from important firms or institutions for the time
being. But meeting both Lissitzky and
Schwitters in the spring of 1923 had encouraged
Zwart and made him aware that people in other
countries were working along the same lines.
Lissitzky had shown him his version of
Mayakovsky's poem For reading out loud,
which made a deep impression and taught him
how to make photograms.
The perfection of printing techniques and
photochemical reproduction had now made the