Design: André Toet
Typography is a specialist craft that takes life-long commitment. Building typographic skill takes patience, practice, curiosity and a critical eye as foundations. Good typographers are sensitive to language (and the meaning of a text), they are intelligent and thoughtful (knowing when to follow convention to craft an appropriate experience for the reader). The very best (and most exciting) typographic designers respect the language, and the reader but also demonstrate rebellion and courage, breaking from the design norms to carve out new directions in the visualisation of language.
André Toet is an acclaimed designer who has dedicated himself to creative typographic pursuit. Four decades in practice has allowed André to build skill, the respect and confidence he needs to create exciting and innovative typographic design outcomes which have been recognised by his peers with numerous international design awards. Studying under luminary Gerrit Noordzij (KABK) and Nicolete Gray (CSA&D), André learnt design was intimately linked with culture; and he saw how design could influence politics, how it both referenced history and also helped to shape our future. It was through this understanding of the cultural value of typographic design that André developed his passion for the aesthetics of letters, words and messages.
André designs letterforms for jewellery, furniture, signage and public art, as well as print and digital. His work considers depth and viewer orientation as well as the typical typographic constraints of readability, proportion and scale. André’s work is bold, vibrant and bravely unconventional, while still being impeccably constructed, as you can see in these examples his portfolio is extraordinarily diverse. The commonality being André’s adventurous visual approach. This daring is what makes his work so exhilarating and so unique.
Text: Nicole Arnett Phillips