evelynekramer:

Gispen in Rotterdam, Nieuwe verbeelding van het Moderne

W.H. Gispen (1890-1981) established his company in 1916 in Rotterdam.Gispen was one of the first manufactuors to produce modern design objects in a series. In the following 18 years he gained  a world-famous reputation with the company.  This reputation is largely due to the way the furniture was promoted on the market: leading photographers and typographers from the so-called ‘Nieuwe fotografen en Typografen’ like Piet Zwart, Jan Kamman and Paul Schuitema created the product catalogs and advertisements for the company. The brand Gispen was a first clear example of the new modernity in the Netherlands.

The design of the book shows two layers. The image layer consists of beautiful black and white and full-colour reproductions of photographs, product catalogs and advertisements. 

The second layer shows the image credits in red typography. This layer is very consistent in its appearance: same positions on every page, simply disregarding the first layer. This layer visualizes the rapidly evolving and often brutal industrialization of that time. Of course it also has a clear reference to the ‘Nieuwe Typografie’ graphic design in which dynamics and clarity are very important.

NAi Publishers - Stout/Kramer

Stout/Kramer Rotterdam