Piet Zwart produced a catalogue for the electrical cable manufacturer Nederlandse Kabelfabriek (NKF) that appeared in 1927/1928, and which was received in avant-garde circles as the epitome of modernist New Typography. It is still extraordinary how he combined photographs with experimental type compositions, expressive montages and bold fields of color to transform the humble cable into a subject for experimental graphic design.
Letterform Archive recently issued a facsimile of this sensational, 80-page catalogue. This reissue is accompanied by an additional volume of essays, as well as a selection of other, rarely shown work Piet Zwart made during his decade-long collaboration with NKF. It also includes Zwart’s manifesto ‘from old to new typography’ in its entirety.
The two volumes have been brought together in a slipcase. Karen Polder designed the slipcase and the complementary book. Her starting point was to give it its own, strong character so that it would become a worthy counterpart of Zwart’s catalogue. The format, size, spine thickness and horizontal layout of the pages remained the same. But she deliberately chose a matt paper type, other visual elements and a more contemporary font (Nitti Grotesk from Bold Monday) to counterbalance Zwart’s catalogue.
Letterform Archive is an organisation dedicated to graphic design by organising lectures, workshops and exhibitions, collecting and publishing.
