Sneak peek

 A few images from our messy home.

The best Dutch book designs 2006

Each year a jury decides which books are the best Dutch book designs in different categories. The books distinguish themselves by the quality of their design, typography, printing, illustration and production. This catalogue shows the winners from 2006.
This book has a really great concept; the designer holds the book in front of him covering his/her face. The cover has a mirror on it.

Agenda design

Again an agenda from my collection. Concept and design by Una designers in Amsterdam. At first glance, the agenda shows hardly any typography; no dates, or week numbers. But there is a 'hidden agenda' in the spreads, on the other side of the coloured pages.

Portugese Lilliput

About an hour ago the Dutch football team (the Orange Lion) defeated the Brazilians (the Divine Canaries). For this post I thought I'd show you how the Dutch look upon the Brazilians now... They speak Portugese there, right?!

But, hey, I'm only kidding! I don't even care about football. However, I love vintage finds and this tiny dictionary is a beauty!

Here! Sit! Down! Good boy...

I love dogs and that's why a colleague gave me this agenda. It's a design made for 'Papier Hier!' (Paper here!), a day where a Dutch Paper Supplier shows its new collection. The designer approached this title as a way to 'talk' to a dog. So Dutch Illustrator Bart van Leeuwen was asked to develop a dog character called Paper.

Found in the trash

Let's travel a little further abroad with this Chinese children's book. I found this years ago in a pile of trash lying on the streets of Amsterdam. I'd like to think I rescued this book. Of course I cannot read it, In fact, I'm not even sure it's Chinese... But it is really interesting to see how we experience a book when we are supposed to read it from 'back to cover'.

Dans la bibliothèque

In the big cabinet in the living room in Germont I discovered a few treasures; some beautiful vintage books.

Heritage of Timur Lenk

My friend and colleague Agreeth designed this book for Ben Vroom, who was in Uzbekistan for 4 months. She used beautiful printing and binding techniques to design this book. The cover looks simple but has a beautiful embossing. When you flick through the book quickly it looks as though there are no pictures in it. But look closely and you discover that the pages can be opened and new spreads appear with wonderfully colour pictures. The typography is elegant and the choice of paper is excellent. Really nice job!