Ha, daar gaat er een van mij!

Best Dutch Book Design 2002

Stroom, The Hague's visual arts centre, commissioned three authors to write a book apiece about facets of the art scene in The Hague since 1945. The volume on graphic design, whose title translates as 'Ha, there goes one of mine!', grew into a major study of local design culture. This all-Dutch book is premised in part on over a hundred interviews mainly with the designers: the youngest has only a few years' practical experience, the oldest - ad man Jan Lavies - is now 99. The development of graphic design in the Netherlands has been written about often enough. Compare the many books and articles and you can observe a consensus looming as regards who and what are important in Dutch graphic design. In 'Ha, there goes one of mine!' the local approach means the inclusion of designers whose work threatens to vanish into the black hole of history. This makes for a few pleasant surprises. The lavishly illustrated book further devotes attention to early and often unfamiliar advertising and design work by well-known illustrators and artists such as Hermanus Berserik, Jan Kuiper and Max Velthuijs. In the chapter on contemporary design culture, the young generation enjoys coverage alongside famous firms such as Studio Dumbar and Tel Design. The book's title is lifted from an interview with R.D.E. Oxenaar, who was consultant to the Dutch Postal and Telegraph Service (PTT) for several decades and designer of the former Dutch bank notes. Oxenaar's soundbite refers to the pleasant sensation designers have on encountering their work in the world at large. One aspect of graphic design in The Hague, we should remember, is that many designers work on products with a potentially vast field of distribution, from bank notes and postage stamps to government printed matter and projects in the public realm.