Dutch artist Theo van Doesburg (1883-1931) is perhaps best known as a prime mover in 'De Stijl', the Dutch artistic movement that demanded an elemental, abstract vocabulary in both painting and architecture.
This study, accompanying a major touring exhibition, reveals for the first time the true extent of his involvement with Dada and Constructivist artists' groups spread across the whole of Europe,as far as Russia and beyond, and the breadth of his creative practice in fields as diverse as film, typography, graphic design and music.
A man of multiple talents and identities, he was inspired by the catastrophe of the First World War to attempt nothing less than the reshaping of culture in its entirety and the construction of a new world order.

This publication continues the ECAL design series initiated with "ECAL Graphic Design" and "ECAL Typography." The project began with a simple question: is there such thing as a computer program capable of taking over the routine tasks of letter design? This issue, both artistic and digital, led the professors and the students of the Masters in Art Direction of the ECAL to imagine exchanges back and forth between digital type specifications and the actual shape of letters. They went into more general questions about the groups of shapes that make up our letters—stems, curves, and serifs—asking themselves how they could possibly simplify and further amalgamate these groups of shapes that monopolize the energy of schoolchildren, illustrators, and type designers alike. Calligraphy and hand-drawn letters comprise series of strokes and curves; mechanical typography does too, through the engraving process of punches and counter-punches. Digital typography, however, dematerialises this operation, leaving the choice of formal references open-ended. Does that mean novel forms of design could evolve through manipulating fonts' algorithmic data? Several small scripting programs were developed and tested by the students during a series of workshops. From a set of typography experiments based on these simple scripts, David Keshavjee and Julien Tavelli designed a text typeface that is featured in this book and displays the characteristics of the tool that generated it. As an extension to this concept, mobile wooden characters were made as a materialization of a graphic application arising from scripting techniques; this enabled play with typographic equipment, hand setting, spaces, and printing. The intention of building project-specific, sometimes unstable tools was part of a quest for unity within a graphic project the initial design and production stages of which were characterized by the same approach: extending the scope of the typographic game.
With contributions by Peter Bilak, Dimitri Bruni, Pierre Keller, David Keshavjee & Julien Tavelli, Jürg Lehni, François Rappo, & Erik Spiekermann.

The design of infrastructural networks is among today’s most complex and most important design tasks. In recent times much attention has been paid to the new ‘urbanized’ landscape that has sprung up around infrastructural networks. Around the globe the importance of infrastructure as the motor of economic development is rising because of increasing mobility and need to make central locations accessible. Infrastructure is an important instrument for the design of public space and landscapes: areas around airport and railway stations, motorway systems and sprawling suburbs, traffic routes to shopping malls, access to industrial areas in the periphery and so on.
This book investigates how the design of infrastructure actively influences the organization of the inhabited landscape. Works of infrastructure are analyzed as footprints of civilization, as physical presence, as transformers of perception, and as new vessels of collective life. The authors identify these characteristics, together with the conditions that influence them, and suggest a typology of design attitudes as revealing in recent practice around the world.

This issue of OASE explores the potential significance of architectonic design for transformation processes on the regional scale. Besides considering the instruments that are available to the designer to fulfil this task, the authors also consider how the design can exercise a ‘positive’ influence on such processes.
The various contributions shed light on the potential significance of territory in contemporary design practice and offer critical reflection on the topical discourse that has evolved over recent years.

Luchthaven Schiphol, het Anne Frank Huis, de Malietoren - het zijn bekende bouwwerken van Benthem Crouwel Architekten. Publieke gebouwen op cruciale, beeldbepalende plekken waar veel mensen samenkomen. BC AD biedt een verfrissende kijk op het omvangrijke oeuvre en geeft inzicht in de werkwijze van het bureau; van de grensovergangen en het experimentele woonhuis in Almere uit de beginperiode tot de stations voor de hogesnelheidslijn en de Noord/Zuid-metrolijn en de uitbreiding van het Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Naast gerealiseerd werk worden ook prijsvraaginzendingen - vaak voor spraakmakende competities - en diverse studies getoond. Uit de tekeningen, schetsen, foto’s en maquettes spreekt de fascinatie voor en het plezier in het oplossen van ingewikkelde problemen. De kracht van Benthem Crouwel Architekten ligt in het vinden van eenvoudige, heldere en duurzame oplossingen voor complexe opgaven. BC AD vat dertig jaar ontwerpen van een van Nederlands succesvolste architectenbureaus samen en geeft daarmee tegelijkertijd een beeld van de Nederlandse ontwerpcultuur.

This book brings together thirty years of work of Benthem Crouwel Architects, one of the Netherlands most successful and innovating architectural bureaus.
An English edition will be published later this year.

Originally conceived as a screenplay by Blaise Cendrars, 'La Fin du monde' was instead published as a novel when funding for the film fell through. The story is a satire in which God, in the guise of a cigar-smoking American businessman, promotes an apocalyptic war on earth as entertainment for the god Mars. In book format the illustrations by Léger become integral to conveying the filmic progression of the text. Amid his illustrations, Léger includes fragments of Cendrars's text as boldly coloured stenciled and block letters; the dynamic, fractured compositions create a simulation of the moving images of film as the pages are turned.

'Die Bühne im Bauhaus'(The Theater of the Bauhaus) is volume 4 in the series Bauhausbücher under editorship of Walter Gropius. The text is a loose collection of essays by Oskar Schlemmer, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, and Farkas Molnár (who in an illustrated essay shares his vision of a total theatre space), with an introduction by Bauhaus leader Walter Gropius. While each essay develops specific ideas about theatre practice, it is the common themes of form and space that tie this volume together.
Emerging as the central focus of The Theater of the Bauhaus is the work of Oskar Schlemmer, whose concerns about form and space became the subject of a variety of Bauhaus experiments. Essays included are "Man and Art Figure" and "Theater (Buhne)", both by Schlemmer; "Theater, Circus, Variety" by Moholy-Nagy (which includes a 22² x 9² fold-out colour illustration representing a visual synthesis of form, motion, sound, light, and odour for a musical variety show); and "U-Theater" by Molnar. The Bauhaus aesthetic of stage design and presentation are elucidated here by Bauhaus masters themselves.

Nicely designed compliation of (Retro) fonts dating from the end of the 19th century up to the sixties and seventies of the 20th century.
"Gregor Stawinski has compiled over 400 characteristic fonts from the Wilhelminian age to the end of the 20th century and presents them in the style of old type specimen books in lists of figures opposite typical uses from a historical or retro context. In this way, he sensitizes us to both the design vocabulary of the individual characters and the typographical compositions of the times. Typography encodes the zeitgeist; it’s no wonder they are called “characters.” To help you launch your time travel right away, he has packed a CD with 222 free fonts into the book." (Publishers text)

Memory Traces is an unconventional photo-book in which Cary Markerink (1951) relates to notions about landscape, culture, history and memory. Composed to be a multi-layered experience, a selection of landscape photographs are combined with several texts including excerpts from travelogues, 'written photographs' and a short story situated in the art-world which, among other things, deals with 'The Artification of Photography'.
A second separate booklet consists of the reproduction of a Chernobyl family album of found negatives.
The large format photographs were made in Sarajevo; Hiroshima and Nagasaki; Berlin, Bitterfeld-Wolfen and Ronneburg; Bikini Island and Nam Island; Chernobyl; Khe San and My Lai.

"There is a common belief, reinforced by Gary Hustwit’s documentary film Helvetica, that Helvetica is the signage typeface of the New York City subway system. But it is not true—or rather, it is only somewhat true.
Helvetica is the official typeface of the MTA today, but it was not the typeface specified by Unimark International when they created the signage system at the end of the 1960s. Why was Helvetica not chosen originally? what was chosen in its place? why is Helvetica now used? when did the changeover occur? Helvetica and the New York City Subway System answers these questions and then goes beyond them to look at how the subway’s signage system has evolved over the past forty years. The resulting story is more than a tale of a typeface. It is a look at the forces that have molded a signage system.
Paul Shaw places the New York City subway system signage in the context of 1960s transportation sign systems worldwide, the collapse of the American passenger railroad system that same decade, and the decline and rebirth of New York City from the Lindsay administration to today. He also offers a fresh and revealing look at the history of Helvetica from an American perspective.
Helvetica and the New York City Subway System was originally written as an essay for AIGA Voice, an online magazine. It was posted in November 2008 and subsequently translated into Portuguese for the Brazilian blog logobr and into Chinese for the upcoming AIGA Speaks: Thoughts on Design 2009. Shaw lectured on the subject in February 2009 to a standing-room only crowd at the Type Directors Club in New York and in July 2009 at TypeCon 2009 in Atlanta.
Shaw’s account of Helvetica’s infiltration of the New York City subway system is based on numerous field trips within the system itself; interviews with Massimo Vignelli, Bob Noorda, Michael Hertz, Tom Geismar and many others; and extensive research including material in the MTA Archives, the New York Transit Museum and several personal collections. Helvetica and the New York City Subway System contains previously unpublished documents as well as more than 200 photographs, most of them original or never seen before. The AIGA Voice text has been corrected, revised and amended to take into account new information. It is supplemented by a chronology of the New York City subway system, comprehensive notes and a bibliography. An introduction has been written by Prof. Clifton Hood, author of 722 Miles: The Building of the Subways and How They Transformed New York (1993)." (Publishers text)

Andreas Schelfhout was ongetwijfeld de belangrijkste en meest succesvolle landschapschilder uit de periode van de Romantiek. Hij schiep een groot oeuvre en vervulde een belangrijke rol in het culturele leven van zijn tijd. Deze uitvoerig geannoteerde en fraai geïllustreerde biografie geeft een, vaak ontwapenend, beeld van de kunstenaar als echtgenoot, vader, vriend, leermeester, kunstbroeder en Hagenaar. Uiteraard wordt het levensverhaal van Schelfhout geplaatst in de context van het Nederlandse kunstleven in de negentiende eeuw. Het boek gaat bijvoorbeeld uitgebreid in op de betekenis van kunstverzamelaars en kunstgenootschappen voor Schelfhouts leven en werk. Aan de hand van eigentijds bronnenmateriaal laat Cyp Quarles van Ufford op overtuigende wijze zien dat Schelfhout meer was dan ‘een navolger van Hobbema en Ruisdaal’ of ‘een voorloper van de Haagse School’. Dit boek geeft Schelfhout zijn eigen welverdiende plaats in de Nederlandse kunstgeschiedenis terug.

Andreas Schelfhout (1787-1870) was without a doubt one of the most important and most successful landscape painters of the Dutch romantic period. This historically grounded and authorative publication places Schelfhout in his rightful place in the Netherlands art history.

This atlas addresses the New Dutch Water Defence Line (Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie) on a themed basis. Its position in the landscape, the forts, the inundation system, the geomorphology, the strategic system and recent developments can be read off in maps rendered so as to give an understanding of all aspects of the defence line landscape. The defence line reveals itself as a many-tentacled military defensive system of forts, group shelters and polders which can be flooded at the threat of war. The maps show the cohesion of the defence line as a landscape-strategic structure as well as the topographic composition of this structure in layers and components. The more detailed maps of the forts display the wealth of historic places, insertions in the landscape and defining elements. The atlas offers administrators something to lean on and designers a sense of freedom - a solid stepping-off point for getting this unique national landscape literally back on the map. Essays place the New Dutch Water Defence Line in a historical perspective. The atlas was commissioned by The Netherlands Architecture Fund and the Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie Project Office.

There is also a Dutch language edition.

Het jaar 2009 is een belangrijk jaar voor Swip Stolk (1944). Vijftig jaar geleden begon hij als grafisch ontwerper en beeldend kunstenaar. In deze uitgave legt hij daar verantwoording van af.
‘Is getekend’ behandelt alle aspecten van zijn werk, in de onderlinge verbanden tussen zijn grafische ontwerpen en zijn beeldende werk, in het doorlopende experiment dat zijn werk tekent en in het begrip visuele irritatie dat hij in de loop der jaren ontwikkelde. Het is een document van een leven.
Swip Stolk neemt een bijzondere plaats in binnen het grafisch ontwerpen in Nederland. Zijn werk is al op meters afstand onmiddellijk als het zijne te herkennen, in dat eigen, unieke handschrift. Hij volgde de trends niet die er gedurende zijn leven ontstonden. Hij zocht consequent naar eigen antwoorden op de ontwikkelingen die gaande waren. Hij gaf niet alleen zijn ideeën, maar ook het tijdsbeeld vorm, hij maakte trends.
In ‘Is getekend’ gaat het vooral om ontwerpschetsen. Schetsen en schetsontwerpen hebben in hun intentie een aftastend en zoekend karakter. Ze leggen daarmee, en dat is het unieke van dit boek, het denken bloot achter het ontwerpproces. Je ziet een idee ontstaan en groeien naar zijn uitvoering. Je ervaart als kijker dat denkend tekenen en ziet tegelijk het hele ontwerpproces in zijn technische uitwerking, tot in detail.
Het innoverende karakter van het werk van Swip Stolk was er in de jaren zestig al direct met zijn Upperground-actie voor de Bijenkorf en werd voortgezet met de experimentele kalenders voor De Boek & Vink, grafische industrie in Zaandijk in de jaren zeventig. Zijn ontwerpen voor de VARA met de beeldbepalende haan hebben een legendarische status, evenals zijn grafische ontwerpen en vormgeving van tientallen tentoonstellingen voor het Groninger Museum, zoals Memphis en Art Business/ Business Art. Hij heeft die lijn van vernieuwing consequent doorgetrokken, in zijn baanbrekende tentoonstellingsinrichtingen van de laatste jaren en in zijn ontwerpen voor internationale bladen als Dutch, Zoo, Stile en Chiq. Het beeldend werk van Swip Stolk als kunstenaar is even innovatief. ‘Is getekend’ laat dat zien in de ontwikkeling van zijn sieraden, wandobjecten en driedimensionale werken, zoals een BMW uit de luxe klasse met een tweede huid van mat rubber waarin de tekens uit zijn geheim alfabet als reliëfs opkomen.
Het gaat in ‘Is getekend’ om uniek materiaal in zijn samenhang over een lange periode (vijftig jaar!), waarvan het grootste deel nooit eerder is gepubliceerd. Zo is het boek, met zijn vijftienhonderd illustraties (1500!), tevens een document over zijn geschiedenis in het grafisch ontwerpen in Nederland. En van zijn positie als beeldend kunstenaar. Het is, in de lijn van zijn manier van werken, gedrukt op verschillende papiersoorten en in verschillende technieken.(Uitgevers tekst).

Swip Stolk holds a rather unique place in the graphic design world of the Netherlands. In the 50 years that he has been a designer he has always gone his own way, never compromising himself and never following the trends of the day. This book is a self-made, extravagant portrait of the artist and his work.

"'Edgar Fernhout Modernist' laat zien hoe de schilder Edgar Fernhout zich na de Tweede Wereldoorlog ontwikkelde en behandelt zijn artistieke volwassenheid. Vanaf het eind van de jaren veertig werden Fernhouts stillevens, landschappen en portretten opgebouwed uit steeds nadrukkelijker verfstreken die het beeld ritmisch structureren. In 1955 verhuisde hij van Amsterdam naar Bergen. Daar maakte hij na verloop van tijd introverte, abstracte werken. Met de typische structuren en gevoelige kleurstellingen in deze schilderijen, laat hij zijn beleving van de nature zien.
Zo ontwikkelde hij zich van neorealist die de zichtbare werkelijkheid weergaf tot een schilder die zijn eigen werkelijkheid zichbaar maakte; van een schilder van licht in een ruimte tot een schilder van ruimtescheppend licht." (Uitgevers tekst)

Since the end of the Cold War in 1990 and the expected conclusion of the Uruzgan mission in 2010, almost 90,000 Dutch soldiers have been involved in peacekeeping operations.
As part of their annual photo commission, 'Document Nederland', the Rijksmuseum and NRC Handelsblad newspaper asked photographer Ad van Denderen to give this history a face. Van Denderen followed the recruits during their training in The Netherlands and on their missions in Chad and Uruzgan: hard working, operating with caution; a frequently unglamorous existence. He also turned his lens towards family members. He captured the Christmas and New Year's greetings being recorded in a television studio and visited the homes of families whose sons will never return - the target of insurgents as a result of their occupation.

This survey of Rembrandt's extraordinary achievement as a draughtsman fills in the gap in the otherwise enormous literature on Rembrandt. More than 150 drawings-mostly illustrated in colour-made during every phase of his activity, are divided by subject into sixteen chapters: self-portraits, the life of women and children, religious subjects, landscapes, animals, nudes, etc.
Rembrandt himself set the precedent for such a thematic arrangement. An exhaustive inventory that was made of the mature artist's effects tells us he kept many of his own drawings of different subjects in separate portfolios and books, and thereby clarifing his astonishing range as draughtsman.
Seymour Slive's profound knowledge of his subject enables him to guide the reader deftly through the wonders of this famously tricky terrain.

Since 2004, Design2context, the Institute of Design Research at the Zurich University of Arts, has undertaken research into issues relating to the social and disciplinary context of design with the aim of fostering a design practic that is characterized by critical reflexivity and a responsible attitude, and of promoting further research in the field of the sociology of design. The research program runs parallel with postgraduate programs, public events, and consultancy activities.
Within the framework of this research focus a series of colloquiums was organized in 2007/2008 around the theme of "Disorientation/Orientation", featuring a range of international and interdisciplinary contributions and accompanied by a postgraduate program initiated by Ruedi Baur and coordinated by him and Andrea Gleiniger.
This volume (the second of two) brings together contributions from a wide range of scholarly and design disciplines.

This publication studies methods for creating flexible looks for public and cultural institutions. The classic logos normally used by companies are the result of a unique process of compression and abstraction. By contrast, flexible looks do not conceal their diverse components of identity in a logo, forming instead a complex family of symbols from them. In the combination of a basic logo and a family of symbols, the look is in a position to represent the fundamentals (the philosophy of the institution, its program) and the specifics (e.g., temporary exhibitions and events). The author describes the effect and potential of looks and offers the criteria that distinguish fully developed, dynamic looks. Case studies of famous designers such as Karl Gerstner and Ruedi Baur enhance the analysis.

“White” is not a book about color. It is rather the author’s attempt to explore the essence of “white”, which he sees as being closely related to the origin of Japanese aesthetics – symbolizing simplicity and subtlety. The central concepts discussed in this publication are emptiness and the absolute void.
Kenya Hara also sees his work as a designer as a pure form of communication. Good communication has the distinction of being able to listen to each other, rather than to press one’s opinion onto the opponent. Kenya Hara compares this form of communication with an “empty container.”
In visual communication, there are equally signals whose signification is limited, as well as signals or symbols such as the cross or the red circle on the Japanese flag, which – like an “empty container” – permit every signification and do not limit imagination. It is not only the fact that the Japanese character for white forms a radical of the character for emptiness that has prompted him to closely associate the color white with the state of emptiness.

This book offers a personal insight into the philosophy of the successful designer and author of “Designing Design”.

Open is a cahier that reflects upon contemporary public space from a cultural perspective. Through a thematic investigation into the changing conditions of public space and through new ideas relating to this space, Open aims to make a structural contribution to the development of theories about these subjects and to function as a platform for reflection on socio-cultural and artistic practices.
Amsterdam at war in 2030. This terrifying projection into the future serves to sharpen and expand our thinking about topics such as tolerance, fear, security and control, censorship, public space and urban politics. Neither naming the enemy nor proffering any answers, theorists and artists fire off questions and sketch experimental scenarios, using Amsterdam as a concrete case as well as a strange attractor.
What are the implications of urban warfare in a Western city? Is there a public domain under such circumstances and how does it function? Will people still be producing art, and how will artists reach their public?

There is also a Dutch language editon