Dutch designer, b. 1885, Zaandijk, d. 1977, Wassenaar. Author of Cable Book (1925) and creator of many classic advertisements for the Netherlands Post Office (PTT). In 2000, Zwart was posthumously awarded the "Designer of the Century" award by the Association of Dutch Designers. Quoting Design Observer: Piet Zwart's work was multi-disciplinary and spanned the gamut of industrial design, typography, photography, and most notably graphic design. As an industrial designer, Zwart is best known for his design of the Bruynzeel modular kitchen in 1937, which is still available today. As a graphic designer, the work he produced for Nederlandse Kabelfabriek Delft (Dutch Cable Factory in Delft) and Dutch Postal Telegraph and Telephone Company (PTT) is arguably among the best known Dutch graphic design of the 20th century. His graphic design work clearly shows the influence of Constructivism and, though he was not a part of the De Stijl, his work reflects elements of this movement. Recurring themes are the use of repetitious patterns, lines, circles, primary colors, photomontage and explorations of experimental typography.

Examples: Toneel Wij Nu, 1925, Kataloog PTT, 1924, Nutter margarine inpakpapier, 1923.

Type revivals of Piet Zwart's typefaces include

• Trio Grotesk (2012, Florian Schick at Bold Monday), a rounded sans family.
• Rubber Vloeren (Ian Lynam, Wordshape). A geometric display face adapted from an alphabet used by Piet Zwart in the Netherlands for a series of advertisements for rubber flooring.

EXTERNAL LINKS
Piet Zwart
 [Designer info]
Google search page

INTERNAL LINKS
Dutch type design ⦿ De Stijl and type design ⦿ Type designers ⦿ Type designers ⦿

Luc Devroye ⦿ School of Computer Science ⦿ McGill University Montreal, Canada H3A 2K6 ⦿ lucdevroye@gmail.com ⦿ http://luc.devroye.org ⦿ http://luc.devroye.org/fonts.html