Piet Zwart (; 28 May 1885 – 24 September 1977) was a Dutch photographer,
typographer
Typography is the art and technique of Typesetting, arranging type to make written language legibility, legible, readability, readable and beauty, appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, Point (typogra ...
, and
industrial designer
Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in advance of the manufactu ...
.
Biography
Early life
Piet Zwart was born on May 28, 1885, in
Zaandijk
Zaandijk () is a town in the municipality of Zaanstad, province of North Holland, Netherlands. It lies about 11 kilometres (6.8 miles) northwest of Amsterdam and had a population of 8,686 in 2017.Statistics Netherlands (CBS), ''Statline: Kernc ...
. He trained as an architect, and began graphic design projects at age 36. His training as an architect included designing furniture and interiors. He was influenced by the
De Stijl
De Stijl (, ; 'The Style') was a Dutch art movement founded in 1917 by a group of artists and architects based in Leiden (Theo van Doesburg, Jacobus Oud, J.J.P. Oud), Voorburg (Vilmos Huszár, Jan Wils) and Laren, North Holland, Laren (Piet Mo ...
movement, which focused on the essentials of form, colour and line, but later moved to a more
functional design
Functional Design is a paradigm used to simplify the design of hardware and software devices such as computer software and, increasingly, 3D models. A functional design assures that each modular part of a device has only one responsibility and pe ...
aesthetic. In the early 1920s Zwart received his first typographic commissions from Laga, a flooring manufacturer. Zwart had no formal training in typography or printing, so he was uninhibited by the rules and methods of traditional professional practices. Zwart regarded typography as an important cultural force of the 20th-century.
Education
Zwart attended the ''Rijksschool voor Kunstnijverheid Amsterdam'' (National School of Applied Arts, Amsterdam), which later merged into the ''Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten'' (
Amsterdam University of the Arts
The Amsterdam University of the Arts () is a Dutch institute for higher professional education located in Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Ki ...
), from 1902 to 1907. He studied a diverse range of art related subjects including painting and architecture,
[Kunstbus:Piet Zwart](_blank)
(in Dutch) (Accessed: 15 January 2017). and he was introduced to the principles of the English
Arts and Crafts movement
The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and America.
Initiat ...
.
From 1908 he taught drawing and art history lessons at the ''Industrie- en Huishoudschool voor Meisjes'', (Industrial and Domestic School for Girls) in
Leeuwarden
Leeuwarden (; ; ; ) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in Friesland, Netherlands, with a population of 127,073 (2023). It is the provincial capital and seat of the Provin ...
. In 1913 he moved to
Voorburg
Voorburg () is a town and former municipality in the west part of the province of South Holland, Netherlands. Together with the town Leidschendam and the village Stompwijk, it merged into the municipality of Leidschendam-Voorburg in 2002. Sit ...
and returned to study, attending the ''Technische Universiteit Delft'' (
Delft University of Technology
The Delft University of Technology (TU Delft; ) is the oldest and largest Dutch public university, public Institute of technology, technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands. It specializes in engineering, technology, computing, design, a ...
) from 1913 to 1914.
Later life
From 1919, while continuing to work as an independent designer, he began teaching at the Rotterdam Academy of Visual Arts, now the
Willem de Kooning Academy
The Willem de Kooning Academy () is a Dutch academy of media, art, design, leisure and education based in Rotterdam. It was named after one of its most famous alumni, Dutch fine artist Willem de Kooning.
Overview
The Willem de Kooning Academy ...
.
He was dismissed in 1933 because of what were considered his radical ideas on education.
Zwart's ideas were similar to those of the
Bauhaus
The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the , was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined Decorative arts, crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., ...
art school in Germany, where, in 1929, he gave a series of guest lectures.
Zwart was a member of
Nederlandsche Vereeniging voor Ambachts- en Nijverheidskunst
The Nederlandsche Vereeniging voor Ambachts- en Nijverheidskunst (V.A.N.K.) (Dutch Association for Craft and Industrial Art) was founded in 1904. It was founded by Jacob Pieter van den Bosch, Herman Hana, Klaas van Leeuwen, Theo Molkenboer, and W ...
(V.A.N.K.) the Dutch Association for Craft and Craft Art.
In 1930, Piet Zwart was asked to design "The Book of PTT." The book was aimed at teaching school children how to use the Dutch postal service. Zwart looked at this as a way to "tickle their curiosity and encourage self reliance." The book was full of bright colors and it was meant to be exciting. He created two main characters for the book: 'The Post' and 'J Self'. They were paper doll cut-outs that he photographed and then touched up with chalk, ink, and color pencil. Additionally, he used many different
fonts
In movable type, metal typesetting, a font is a particular #Characteristics, size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design.
For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) inclu ...
of varying sizes and thicknesses. He was assisted in illustrating the book by
Dick Elffers
Dirk Cornelis "Dick" Elffers (Rotterdam, 9 December 1910 – Amsterdam, 17 June 1990) was a Dutch artist.
Life
Elffers was trained at the Willem de Kooning Academy, Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten (Rotterdam) as graphic designer. While at Rot ...
. The book was finally published in 1938.
In 1942, during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, Zwart's design career came to a halt when he was arrested by the occupying German forces. He was held prisoner, along with 800 other prominent people, in an
internment camp
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without Criminal charge, charges or Indictment, intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects ...
. He was released in 1945 when the war ended. He resumed his career, mainly focusing on
industrial design
Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical Product (business), products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in adva ...
from this point onward.
Piet Zwart died in 1977, aged 92. The
Piet Zwart Institute
The Piet Zwart Institute is a post-graduate institute for study and research in art, media and design based in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Named in memory of the Dutch designer Piet Zwart, it was inaugurated in 2001. The current postgraduate study ...
of the Willem de Kooning Academy in
Rotterdam
Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...
is named after him.
Design Style


"Zwart was able to manipulate the oblique perspective in such a way that space was not only activated but made to seem irrational in order to heighten the viewer's experience of what would otherwise have been an ordinary rectangular room."
As a designer, and pioneer of modern
typography
Typography is the art and technique of Typesetting, arranging type to make written language legibility, legible, readability, readable and beauty, appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, Point (typogra ...
, Zwart was well known for his work for both Nederlandse Kabelfabriek Delft (a cable factory in
Delft
Delft () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, ...
) and the Dutch postal, telegraph and telephone service. He did not adhere to traditional typography rules, but used the basic principles of
constructivism
Constructivism may refer to:
Art and architecture
* Constructivism (art), an early 20th-century artistic movement that extols art as a practice for social purposes
* Constructivist architecture, an architectural movement in the Soviet Union in t ...
and "
De Stijl
De Stijl (, ; 'The Style') was a Dutch art movement founded in 1917 by a group of artists and architects based in Leiden (Theo van Doesburg, Jacobus Oud, J.J.P. Oud), Voorburg (Vilmos Huszár, Jan Wils) and Laren, North Holland, Laren (Piet Mo ...
" in his commercial work. His work can be recognized by its
primary colours
Primary colors are colorants or colored lights that can be mixed in varying amounts to produce a gamut of colors. This is the essential method used to create the perception of a broad range of colors in, e.g., electronic displays, color printin ...
, geometrical shapes, repeated word patterns and an early use of
photomontage
Photomontage is the process and the result of making a composite photograph by cutting, gluing, rearranging and overlapping two or more photographs into a new image. Sometimes the resulting composite image is photographed so that the final imag ...
. The latter is exemplified by his well-known cover designs for the series ''Monografieën over filmkunst'' (Monographs on Film Art).
His commercial print work has influences from
Constructivism
Constructivism may refer to:
Art and architecture
* Constructivism (art), an early 20th-century artistic movement that extols art as a practice for social purposes
* Constructivist architecture, an architectural movement in the Soviet Union in t ...
,
Dada
Dada () or Dadaism was an anti-establishment art movement that developed in 1915 in the context of the Great War and the earlier anti-art movement. Early centers for dadaism included Zürich and Berlin. Within a few years, the movement had s ...
and
De Stijl
De Stijl (, ; 'The Style') was a Dutch art movement founded in 1917 by a group of artists and architects based in Leiden (Theo van Doesburg, Jacobus Oud, J.J.P. Oud), Voorburg (Vilmos Huszár, Jan Wils) and Laren, North Holland, Laren (Piet Mo ...
, while still adding a playfulness to the mix. In the 1920s, he began to work for Nederlandsche Kabelfabriek (Cable manufacturers) in Delft. While working for the company, he experimented with upper and lower case letters, lines, circles and screens, and free letter composition. He produced 275 designs within a decade, and then after he moved on to interior design, industrial design and furniture design. Zwart called himself a 'typotect'; part typographer, part architect.
Working career
Piet Zwart is mostly known for his
graphic design
Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art that involves creating visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdisciplinary branch of ...
work. He started his career as an
architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
and draftsman and worked for
Jan Wils and
Berlage
Hendrik Petrus Berlage (; 21 February 185612 August 1934) was a Dutch architect and designer. He is considered one of the fathers of the architecture of the Amsterdam School.
Life and work
Hendrik Petrus Berlage, son of Nicolaas Willem Ber ...
in 1919. Two years after working for
Jans Wils, he worked with Dutch Architect
Berlage
Hendrik Petrus Berlage (; 21 February 185612 August 1934) was a Dutch architect and designer. He is considered one of the fathers of the architecture of the Amsterdam School.
Life and work
Hendrik Petrus Berlage, son of Nicolaas Willem Ber ...
for several years.
Flooring Company
In 1920, he got an assignment from the flooring company Vickers House. He made several advertisements for this client. “Zagen, boren, vijlen” (saws, drills and files) Zwart solved a practical print problem by assembling letters, blanks, and symbols from print houses.
NKF Catalog
In 1923 Berlage introduced him to one of his relatives. the manager of the Nederlandsche Kabelfabriek (NKF) at Delft. He had experimented with
typography
Typography is the art and technique of Typesetting, arranging type to make written language legibility, legible, readability, readable and beauty, appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, Point (typogra ...
in the early 1920s, but, while working at the NKF, he realised how unaware he was of the terms and methods of printing. He didn't know the difference between lower and uppercase letters. An 18-year-old assistant at the NKF helped him learn the principles of
printing
Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ...
. He created a total of 275 designs in 10 years for the NKF Company, almost all typographical works. He experimented with small and large letters, circles and rectangles,
visual pun
A visual pun is a pun involving an image or images (in addition to or instead of language), often based on a rebus.
Visual puns in which the image is at odds with the inscription are common in cartoons such as '' Lost Consonants'' or '' The Fa ...
s, repetition and
alliteration
Alliteration is the repetition of syllable-initial consonant sounds between nearby words, or of syllable-initial vowels if the syllables in question do not start with a consonant. It is often used as a literary device. A common example is " Pe ...
. He resigned in 1933 to become an interior, industrial and furniture designer.
Photography
Zwart began using photographic images in his compositions in 1926. He first worked with commercial photographers. Thus creating a balance between
two-dimensional
A two-dimensional space is a mathematical space with two dimensions, meaning points have two degrees of freedom: their locations can be locally described with two coordinates or they can move in two independent directions. Common two-dimension ...
type and the
three-dimensional
In geometry, a three-dimensional space (3D space, 3-space or, rarely, tri-dimensional space) is a mathematical space in which three values (''coordinates'') are required to determine the position (geometry), position of a point (geometry), poi ...
image. The photographs that he integrated into his work have high
contrast, negative images, and are overprinted with colored inks and cropped into geometric shapes. In 1928, he bought his own camera and taught himself the photographic techniques. Zwarts admiration for repetition, structure, lines and planes, and balance show throughout his photographs. Zwart experimented with photography while working for the NKF catalog. He photographed the close-ups of the electric cables.
Stamps 1931
Postzegel 1931 goudse glazen.jpg, Stamps 1931
Stained glass Gouda
PietZwartWilhelmina70cent1931.jpg, Wilhelmina stamp
PietZwartWilhelmina80cent1931.jpg, Wilhelmina stamp
PietZwartWilhelmina1931.png, Design Wilhelmina stamp (1931)
Ring Neuer Werbegestalter
Zwart was a member of the Ring neuer Werbegestalter which is an avant-garde group of advertisement designers.
Zwart's Industrial Design
In the Netherlands immediately before World War II, activity in the design field grew rapidly, calling for new solutions to functional problems. In 1938 Zwart's prefabricated kitchen consisting of independent units was brought out on the Dutch market, revolutionising kitchen interiors which also illustrated the creativity of mass-production of useful objects.
In 1930, Zwart was employed by the Bruynzeel Company. First he designed their annual calendars and other commercial items. He helped with other areas of the company, too. He was the first to design a kitchen for mass production.
Zwart is best known for his design of the Bruynzeel modular kitchen in 1937, which is still available today. The design reflects graphic organization and it is considered mass-production. The design was highly-progressive for its time.
Zwart's Bruynzeel Modular Kitchen was exhibited in Germany-Netherlands: Interactions 1920–1940 at the Haags Gemeentemuseum. This was an example of a 'rational kitchen.'
[The Hague. Germany-Netherlands: Interactions 1920–1940]
Awards
In 2000, Zwart was awarded the "Designer of the Century" award by the Association of Dutch Designers.
Notes
References
Sources
*Meggs, Philip B., Purvis, Alston W.History of Graphic Design. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley, 2006
* De Jesus, Sherman (2012). ''Everything Must Change – Piet Zwart''. Memphis Film & Television. ''Original title: Alles Moet Nieuw – Piet Zwart''.
*Industrial Design in the Netherlands, Pieter Brattinga, Design Quarterly, No. 59, Industrial Design in the Netherlands (1964), pp. 1–25
*
*Sillevis, John, The Hague. Germany-Netherlands: Interactions 1920–1940, The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 124, No. 951 (Jun., 1982), pp. 385–386+388
Published by: The Burlington Magazine Publications, Ltd.
*The Omega Workshops by Judith Collins; The De Stijl Environment by Nancy Troy, Review by: Gillian Naylor, Design Issues, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Autumn, 1985), pp. 85–88, Published by: The MIT Press
* Piet Zwart (1885–1977). Form Engineer, Gemeente Museum, Den Haag.
* Yvonne Brentjens, Piet Zwart vormingenieur, Waanders Uitgevers Zwolle (2008)
* Piet Zwart, Piet Zwart, Focus Pub (1997)
* Fridolin Muller, Piet Zwart, Hastings House Publishers: New York, 1966
Iconofgraphics Piet Zwart Institute Willem de Kooning Academy Rotterdam UniversityTudor, Sebastian, Visual Involved, November 24, 2010.Design Is History*
Modernism 101
External links
*
*Finding Aid for
Piet Zwart Views of Manufacturing and Architecture, held at the Getty Research Institute
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zwart, Piet
1885 births
1977 deaths
Dutch graphic designers
Dutch typographers and type designers
Dutch industrial designers
Academic staff of the Bauhaus
Delft University of Technology alumni
Academic staff of Willem de Kooning Academy
People interned during World War II
People from Zaanstad
20th-century Dutch photographers
Royal Designers for Industry