"Of course design is about problem solving, but I cannot resist adding something personal."
Willem Crouwel, otherwise known as “Wim Crouwel,” is a Dutch Graphic Designer who specialises in typography. Throughout his career, he produced work for exhibitions, posters, calendars, typefaces, trademarks and stamps. (Design Museum, N/A) Born 1928, Crouwel was inspired by his surroundings, such as electricity pylons, railway yards, overhead cables, concrete, glass and steel: and after a trip to the circus, was captivated by the big top. He created a scaled down circus tent in his room. This interest in architecture was the first step towards his modern, systematic grid work. He used this structure often in his later designs.
After graduating with a fine art degree and spending two years in the military, Crouwel pursued a career in exhibition designing, collaborating with other designers such as Dick Elfers, which diversified his own work. Whilst working in this field, Crouwel wanted the title of the exhibition to be reflected in the poster. He would look at the work of the artist, and use his first impressions to translate it typographically, often using their characteristics. For example, Eindhoven Fernand Leger’s work could be recognized by his use of heavy, black lines. This influenced Crouwel to create “Leger” out of thick, black lines to dominate and distinguish the poster. Crouwel was always trying to create something striking, functional, and abstract.
“Design is something to help society. You can build. You can add to it.”
Crouwel was one of five founders of the design studio Total Design. The founders were very diverse in their styles and skills, “Total” summing this up. With these different skills and experience, the team were able to create complex and wide-ranging projects for clients from all areas of businesses.
Crouwel focused mainly on the emotive style of expressionism as a painter, but was very Bauhaus and focused on functionalism in his designs. He stated, “When you're a functionalist you want to make things comprehensible, readable, make your ideas visible. I feel myself being a modernist, a functionalist, but aesthetics always stand in the way.” He was both inspired and fascinated by Bauhaus ideas and typography. His work always consisted of both of those elements: an emotional and a rational aspect.
One of Crouwel’s most notable work was the grid-based methodology he created for the Stedelijk Museum, which gave the Museum’s publicity material a lot of flexibility, whilst keeping the material recognizable in it’s visual language. This is still used today. Crowuel is also recognised for his experimental typography. Pushing the boundaries of the principles and legibility, he used his experience of grids and structure to support easily read sans serif typefaces. In 1967, Crouwel designed the typeface New Alphabet, which embraced the limitations of the early technology. The font contained horizontal and vertical strokes only.
