Wim Crouwel

Wim Crouwel is recognized for his love of grids and typographic systems to create dynamic, experimental work. In 1963, he was one of the founders of the design studio Total Design (currently named Total Identity). From 1964 onwards, Crouwel was responsible for the design of the posters, catalogues and exhibitions of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. In 1967 he designed the typeface New Alphabet, a design that embraces the limitations of the Cathode Ray Tube technology (and the early screens that made use of it) and thus only contains horizontal and vertical strokes. Other typefaces from his hand are Fodor and Gridnik. On the London Design Museum site they describe Wim Crouwel as follows:

Regarded as one of the leading designers of the twentieth century, Crouwel embraced a new modernity to produce typographic designs that captured the essence of the emerging computer and space age of the early 1960s. Spanning over 60 years, this exhibition covers Crouwel’s rigorous design approach and key moments in his career including his work for design practice Total Design, the identity for the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, as well as his iconic poster, print, typography and lesser known exhibition design. The exhibition will explore Crouwel’s innovative use of grid-based layouts and typographic systems to produce consistently striking asymmetric visuals.

Profile: Saul Bass

Saul Bass born on May 8, 1920 in Bronx, New York was one of the greatest graphic designers of the 20th century. He became known for designing brilliant animated sequences for motion pictures. In his 40+ year career he did work for the best Hollywood movie makers including Otto Preminger, Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese just to name a few.

He did work for numerous movies, including classics such as Psycho, Casino, West Side Story, Anatomy of a Murder and dozens of others. He won numerous awards, including an oscar in 1969 for best documentary for “Why Men Creates.” In 1965 won Lion of San Marco award for Best Film about Adolescence for the film “The Searching Eye”. In 1994 won Time-Machine Honorary Award and in 1984 won Special Award for the movie “Quest.” He is also well known in the publishing/advertising industry, for example, he designed the corporate identity of United Airlines as well as poster for the Los Angeles Olympic games in 1984. He had a very successful career working on some of the best movies of the 20th century, he died on april 25h, 1996 in Los Angeles.