Willem Hendrik "Wim" Crouwel (; 21 November 1928 – 19 September 2019) was a Dutch

graphic design Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art whose activity consists in projecting visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdiscipli ...

er,

type designer Type design is the art and process of designing typefaces. This involves drawing each letterform using a consistent style. The basic concepts and design variables are described below. A typeface differs from other modes of graphic production su ...

, and

typographer Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing ( leading), an ...

Early life and education

Between 1947 and 1949, he studied Fine Arts at Academie Minerva in Groningen, the Netherlands. After graduating from a traditional art school, he served for two years in the military. Fresh out of the military, he was hired by an exhibition company in Amsterdam. During an interview in 2011, Crouwel said that his traditional art training hadn't taught him anything about typography, and that he eventually learned it by attending night classes in typography at what is now the

Gerrit Rietveld Academie The Gerrit Rietveld Academie, also known as Rietveld School of Art & Design and Rietveld Academy, is an art academy in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The academy was founded in 1924 and offers programs in fine arts and design. History In 1924, the I ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

Career

Crouwel began his career in 1955 creating exhibition, graphic, and product designs along with Kho Liang Ie. In 1963, he was one of the founders of the design studio Total Design (currently named Total Identity). From 1964 onwards, Crouwel was responsible for the design of the posters, catalogues and exhibitions of the

Stedelijk Museum The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (; Municipal Museum Amsterdam), colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

in Amsterdam. In 1967 he designed the

typeface A typeface (or font family) is the design of lettering that can include variations in size, weight (e.g. bold), slope (e.g. italic), width (e.g. condensed), and so on. Each of these variations of the typeface is a font. There are list of type ...

New Alphabet New Alphabet is a parametric typeface designed by Wim Crouwel, released in 1967. It embraced the limitations of the display technology that it was displayed on by only using horizontal and vertical strokes. This meant that some of the letters ha ...

, a design that embraces the limitations of the

cathode ray tube A cathode-ray tube (CRT) is a vacuum tube containing one or more electron guns, which emit electron beams that are manipulated to display images on a phosphorescent screen. The images may represent electrical waveforms ( oscilloscope), pictu ...

technology used by early data display screens and phototypesetting equipment, thus only containing horizontal and vertical strokes. Other typefaces from his hand are

Fodor The surname Fodor may refer to the following notable people: * Benjamin Fodor alias Phoenix Jones (born 1988), American real-life superhero * Carel Anton Fodor (1768–1846), Dutch conductor and composer * Carl Fodor (born 1963), American football ...

and Gridnik. In 1970 he designed the Dutch pavilion for

Expo '70 The or Expo 70 was a world's fair held in Suita, Osaka Prefecture, Japan between March 15 and September 13, 1970. Its theme was "Progress and Harmony for Mankind." In Japanese, Expo '70 is often referred to as . It was the first world's fair ...

(Osaka, Japan). Later, Crouwel designed the Number Postage Stamps for the Dutch PTT, well known in the Netherlands during its circulation from 1976-2002. In the years Crouwel worked for Total Design, he designed many geometric wordmarks, one of which is the wordmark for the Dutch

Rabobank Rabobank (; full name: ''Coöperatieve Rabobank U.A.'') is a Dutch multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in Utrecht, Netherlands. The group comprises 89 local Dutch Rabobanks (2019), a central organisation (Raboban ...

, designed in 1973. The lettershapes have been influenced by the fact that the wordmark had to be used as a 3D light box. After the 3D application was finalized, the 2D design for print was adapted. According to Wim Crouwel, New Alphabet was ''‘over-the-top and never meant to be really used’''. However, as unreadable as it was, it made a comeback in 1988 when designer

Brett Wickens Brett Wickens (born April 15, 1961 in Hamilton, Ontario) is a British-Canadian creative director known for his work with identity design. He is a partner for the Ammunition Design Group, and is currently living and working in the San Francisco ...

used a version of the font on the sleeve of

Substance Substance may refer to: * Matter, anything that has mass and takes up space Chemistry * Chemical substance, a material with a definite chemical composition * Drug substance ** Substance abuse, drug-related healthcare and social policy diagnosis ...

Joy Division Joy Division were an English rock band formed in Salford in 1976. The group consisted of vocalist Ian Curtis, guitarist/keyboardist Bernard Sumner, bassist Peter Hook and drummer Stephen Morris. Sumner and Hook formed the band after attend ...

. In addition to his work as a graphic designer, he was also active in the educational field. In the 1950s he worked as a teacher at the Royal Academy for Art and Design in

's-Hertogenbosch s-Hertogenbosch (), colloquially known as Den Bosch (), is a city and municipality in the Netherlands with a population of 157,486. It is the capital of the province of North Brabant and its fourth largest by population. The city is south of th ...

(currently called Akademie Voor Kunst en Vormgeving St. Joost or AKV, St. Joost) and at the predecessor of what is now the

. Between 1965 and 1985 he was connected to the department of

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 advan ...

of the Delft University of Technology. From 1987 to 1993 he was extraordinary professor in the fields of History, Arts and Culture Studies at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. In the years 1985–1993 he was the director of the

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Municipal Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen () is an art museum in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The name of the museum is derived from the two most important collectors of Frans Jacob Otto Boijmans and Daniël George van Beuningen. It is located at ...

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

. Crouwel's graphic work is especially well known, and respected for the use of

grid Grid, The Grid, or GRID may refer to: Common usage * Cattle grid or stock grid, a type of obstacle is used to prevent livestock from crossing the road * Grid reference, used to define a location on a map Arts, entertainment, and media * News g ...

-based layouts and typography that is rooted in the

International Typographic Style The International Typographic Style, also known as the Swiss Style, is a graphic design style that emerged in Russia, the Netherlands, and Germany in the 1920s and was further developed by designers in Switzerland during the 1950s. The Internatio ...

Awards

* H. N. Werkman Prize (1958) * Frans Duwaer Prize (1965) * H. N. Werkman Prize (1966) * Piet Zwart Prize (1991) * Anton Stankowski Prize (1991) * Honorary doctorate TU Delft (1994) * BKVB Funds Oeuvre Award (2004) * Gerrit Noordzij Prize (2009) * Type Director Club's Medal (2019)

Literature

* Frederike Huygen, Hugues Boekraad, ''Wim Crouwel: Mode en Module'', 010 Publishers, Rotterdam (1997), (), (Dutch). * Kees Broos, ''Wim Crouwel: Alphabets'', BIS Publishers, Amsterdam (2003), (), (English). * Catherine de Smet, Emmanuel Bérard, ''Wim Crouwel: Architectures Typographiques / Typographic Architectures'', Editions F7, Paris (2007), (), (French/English).
* Kerry William Purcell, "Wim Crouwel: Modern Method", Eye Magazine, No. 79, Spring, 2011.
*Wim Crouwel 'in his own words' a selection of lectures and articles delivered by Wim Crouwel between 1973 and 2006, Lauwen Books waysofthinking.nl * Frederike Huygen, ''Wim Crouwel Modernist'', Lecturis, Eindhoven (2015), (), (English).

References

External links

Site includes articles, chronology, typography, bibliography and gallery of designer's work.
Wim Crouwel bio
at Iconofgraphics.com
Architype Crouwel, a collection of typefaces in collaboration between David Quay and Freda Sack of The Foundry and Wim Crouwel
now The Foundry Types.
The definitive digital version of Gridnik by in collaboration between David Quay and Freda Sack of The Foundry and Wim Crouwel
now The Foundry Types.
*Kerry William Purcell, "Wim Crouwel: Modern Method", Eye Magazine, No. 79, Spring, 2011
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crouwel, Wim 1928 births 2019 deaths Dutch graphic designers Dutch typographers and type designers People from Groningen (city) Delft University of Technology faculty Erasmus University Rotterdam faculty Gerrit Rietveld Academie alumni Dutch stamp designers