Piet Zwart: The Rebellious Type

Piet Zwart

TypographerDutch PhotographerIndustrial Designer

What is he like?

“Different”“Not an easy man”“Self centered” and “indiscretion”

Work late nightsDoes not like to hear people’s wrong impressions of him

Honorable Mentions in Year 2000

“Designer of the Century”“The most Influential Designer of the Twentieth Century” - The Association of Dutch Designers

Piet Zwart was born in 1885 in North Holland.

He attended The School of Applied Arts where professors were rarely present for class and the students had to be self taught

By designing from his gut, Piet Zwart was able to experiment and develop nontraditional typography methods and collages with photography

Concerned with readability, his main focus was the purpose of type within a project

Some of his work

Creative

Time

Influence

While time has proved him to be a truly great creative, it must have been hard for him to put up with life as the target of harsh critiques from charlatans and mediocre talents. It’s a great lesson for designers to understand that one’s own creative vision is not fodder for other creatives to comment upon. In the long run, history will be the judge of great creativity and not the opinions of others in the field.

Target Mediocre

Lesson

Dutch Postal Telegraph and Telephone system.

JanMils

Hendrick Petrus Berlage

Architect

Nederlandse Kabelfabriek Delft

Dutch Postal Telegraph & Telephone

Dutch Cable Factory in Delft

PIET ZWART INSTITUTE

Held captive by German soldiers during WWII, he returned after: working in industrial design.

Piet Zwart suffered for his art, ensuring his legacy of creativity would live on and be lessons for future artists. His work at the time was avant garde, but he still managed sell his work as the best way of communicating the message.

Despite difficulties, Piet Zwart succeeded in his goal of communicating a clear and vivid message for the user.

The message is this: failures or life lessons, either one, are always motivators for more creativity to succeed in making the work.

In the end after all, only our names will live on.

Sources

http://www.noupe.com/spotlight/piet-zwart-the-rebellious-type.html

www.thinkingform.com/2011/05/28/thinking-piet-zwart-05-28-1885/

www.iconofgraphics.com/Piet-Zwart/