Go ahead, make the jump from architecture to typography – we dare you. That’s exactly what Dutch designer Piet Zwart (1885-1977) had done. By the time his career in typography and graphic design took off, he had already studied architecture, taught art history, and worked as an interior, fabric, and furniture design.
He was a rebel that let himself be influenced by two completely opposing creative worlds, which bled into each other in his work – Dada and De Stijl. This tension, between the irrational playfulness of Dada and the neoplastic formality of De Stijl, led him to freely mix and match, especially between typography and architecture. He built designs on a page the same way an architect builds structures in space. Zwart called himself a “typotecht”.
At Dan Alexander & Co., our work seeks to intercept between disparate disciplines too, to find the meeting point between philosophy, technology, and design. For us, the design is a vehicle for travelling between different dimensions, finding the horizon where they all meet.
Zwart also played on such a horizon, melting-in imagery from photographs into his typographic work, with a collage effect. The three-dimensional and the two-dimensional come together in one creative work.
Very interesting. I am admiring the amazing books of Dan Alexander. I am glad that this blog will teach me some of his inspiration.
Great! Luv it