Wim Crouwel

Someone else who has used actual physical objects as his muse to create functional type, is Wim Crouwel, and in particular his  design for a show of  Claes Oldenburgs work.

Wim Crouwel's typography for Claes Oldenburg.

The typeface has been digitally redrawn and reproduced by Sea design to accompany an exhibition, (called Seen/ unseen). This was an exhibition of Wim Crouwel's posters from the late 1950s to 1970s, this catalog uses a font originally designed for Claes Oldenburg, that has ben revamped.

          

Catalog for Wim Crouwel's exhibition.

To appreciate this typographic design you would have to be aware of Claes Oldenburg and his work, he is an American popartist who is known for his larger then life sculptures. He would take everyday objects and enlarge and replicate them,to then place them in oureveryday surroundings,for example: A large peg in an office, up-market working environment.

        

Claes Odenburg sculptures.

These sculptures ranged in size and materials,often seen as humorous 

He also created a rage of soft sculptures which used materials such as PVC, leather,filling them with foam and sponge. One of the most remembered sculptures being a large slice of chocolate cake and another being a burger. 

  

Oldenburg's soft sculptures

The success of the typeface I find is the use of the shapes of the counters and corners of the characters. The curved diamond shape gives the illusion that the letter is soft and could be packed with something,a full cushioned look is seen here. This is a direct echo of claes oldenburgs soft sculptures. The materials used for the sculptures is virtually visible here,all the foam, plastics and built up artwork is resembled clearly due to the cleaver shape. also find the short x-height of the letters also help created a chunky solid sculpture like visuals. The heavy weight encourages the shapes to look like objects and nearly 3 dimensional.

Poster for Seen/Unseen exhibition

This poster was also produced by sea design to promote a talk by the designers. It uses enlarged fragments of the claes oldenburg type. The main focus is kept on the blown up type displaying the information very small and tightly, in an extra bold wide rounded face , which is consistent with the enlarged typography design. It is foil blocked in silver and the rest of the poster is screen printed. I think the typeface is also effective as an outline and still references the same things as the filled type but has a slightly more modern digital quality to it. As far as I am aware the type only exists as lower case,or I have only seen it as lowercase. It would be interesting to see how uppercase characters would look and what modifications would be made. Another way this type could be taken further would be to produce it in three-dimensional scale maybe made as actual cushions or bean bags.

Wim crouwel is a dutch designer worked primary as a freelance until he founded his design studio Total Design,where he has designed and overseen an extensive work for the museum of Amsterdam along with other clients,but he is typically known for his work in typography.

One project in particular being his 'new alphabet designs', which is a set of characters consisting of no diagonals or curves,only consisting of 90 and 45 degree angles for all strokes.

Wim Crouwel's New alphabet

Although this design was published in 1967,I find it still looks contemporary with a timeless look and could be mistaken to of been produced very recently,this along with a minimalist swiss feel is strong and consistent though a lot of Wim;s typography. Another factor I have noticed in many of his typography designs have only one case.

Here is a great interview between Win and Creative review,where he talks about some of his life as a designer,and shows other good examples of his work.

www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2007/july/striking-the-eye-an-interview-with-wim-crouwel