
Wim Crouwel, Jan Van Toorn|Books
May 21, 2015
The Debate, Part 4
This week, Design Observer publishes four excerpts from The Debate, now available from Monacelli.
Today’s is the final installment. Read parts 1, 2, and 3.
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Wim Crouwel and Jan van Toorn both designed postal stamps as well. In the 1970s Van Toorn did a few assignments for the national postal service, PTT. In 1971 he designed a stamp for the Prince Bernhard Foundation, while in 1975 he created three stamps on topics related to Amsterdam (together with Paul Mijksenaar): two commemorating the capital’s seventh centennial and one on the Portuguese-Israeli community that had been in the Netherlands for three centuries. The original idea had been to design a sheet of one hundred stamps featuring images of Amsterdam residents from the last seven hundred years, with the overall color of the sheet changing from red to yellow.
Above: Jan Van Toorn, 1975
Unfortunately, this idea was not feasible for technical reasons. The stamps Van Toorn ultimately designed are structured as a collage, showing a map, a procession of Amsterdam residents, and an image of the Portuguese Synagogue. Although the design of these stamps was a collaborative effort, they still look like typical Jan van Toorn designs.
Above: Wim Crouwel, 1976
Jan Van Toorn, 1983
Wim Crouwel, 1978
Jan Van Toorn, 1991
Wim Crouwel, 1968
Observed
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Observed
By Wim Crouwel & Jan Van Toorn
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