DESIGN IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE:
THE DUTCH PTT 1920 - 1990
Gerard Forde [Editor], 8vo [Design]
Gerard Forde [Editor]: DESIGN IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE: THE DUTCH PTT 1920-1990. London: Design Museum, 1990. First edition [limited edition of 2,000 copies]. Octavo. Green cloth binding. Screen-printed chip board with tipped-in plate. 80 pp. Approximately 75 illustrations in various color combinations. Elaborate graphic design throughout. Corners gently pushed, but remarkably well-preserved: a nearly fine copy.
8.25 x 11.75 scarce hardcover book with 80 pages and approx. 25 full-color illustrations and approx. 50 one-color illustrations [in green, cyan, and magenta. Only 2,000 copies were published in conjunction with the Design Museum's exhibition, which chronicled the graphic design history of the Netherlands Post, Telegram and Telephone Services [PTT].
Jean van Royen's early adherence to typographic and design excellence set a standard for the PTT for years to come. In the early 1930s, he commissioned Piet Zwart to transform PTT's in-house design style. This beautiful chapter in the history of graphic design came to "a brutal conclusion" when van Royen died in 1941 because of his opposition to fascism. Fortunately, van Royen's design legacy was revived after the war and continues to this day.
Contents
Ugly, Ugly, Ugly
The Shock of Recognition (9 examples of ZwartÕs work for PTT)
Nineteen Thirty Nine to Nineteen Forty Five
Kunst en Vormgeving
One Percent
Toward a New House Style
Artists and designers include Charles Peguy, Rene van Raalte, Willem Penaat, Charles Eyck, Chris Lebeau, Fokko Mees, Andre van der Vossen, Jan Toorop, Kolomon Moser, Jac Jongert, Michel de Klerk, Wybo Meyer, Vilmos Huszar, Anton van der Valk, Nicolaas de Koo, Anton Kurvers, Kurt Schwitters, Piet Zwart, Paul Schuitema, Henny Cahn, Leendert van der Vlugt, Otto Treumann, Cas Oorthuys, Pieter Brattinga, Dick Elffers, Willem Sandberg, Peter Struyckens, and Dawn Barret among many many others.
Exceptional book design from 8vo: Michael Burke, Mark Holt, Simon Johnson, and Hamish Muir. According to Rick Poynor: Two members of the team had studied with Wolfgang Weingart in Basel, and Octavo had a high-mindedness and purity that set it apart intellectually and aesthetically from both the commercial and 'style' wings of contemporary British graphics. Octavo was sternly opposed to typographic mediocrity, nostalgia, fashion, decoration, symmetry, centered type and the hated serif. It was for a semantically determined use of structure and the infinite possibilities of typographic experimentation. 'We take an international, modernist stance,' the first editorial concluded. 'This is necessary in England.