28 Facts About Piet Zwart

Piet Zwart trained as an architect, and began graphic design projects at age 36.

Piet Zwart was influenced by the De Stijl movement, which focused on the essentials of form, colour and line, but later moved to a more functional design aesthetic.

Piet Zwart had no formal training in typography or printing, so he was uninhibited by the rules and methods of traditional professional practices.

Piet Zwart regarded typography as an important cultural force of the 20th-century.

Piet Zwart attended the Rijksschool voor Kunstnijverheid Amsterdam, which later merged into the Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten, from 1902 to 1907.

Piet Zwart studied a diverse range of art related subjects including painting and architecture, and he was introduced to the principles of the English Arts and Crafts movement.

Piet Zwart was dismissed in 1933 because of what were considered his radical ideas on education.

Piet Zwart's ideas were similar to those of the Bauhaus art school in Germany, where, in 1929, he gave a series of guest lectures.

Piet Zwart created two main characters for the book: 'The Post' and 'J Self'.

Piet Zwart was held prisoner, along with 800 other prominent people, in an internment camp.

Piet Zwart was released in 1945 when the war ended.

Piet Zwart resumed his career, mainly focusing on industrial design from this point onward.

Piet Zwart did not adhere to traditional typography rules, but used the basic principles of constructivism and "De Stijl" in his commercial work.

Piet Zwart produced 275 designs within a decade, and then after he moved on to interior design, industrial design and furniture design.

Piet Zwart is mostly known for his graphic design work.

Piet Zwart started his career as an architect and draftsman and worked for Jan Wils and Berlage in 1919.

Piet Zwart had experimented with typography in the early 1920s, but, while working at the NKF, he realised how unaware he was of the terms and methods of printing.

Piet Zwart didn't know the difference between lower and uppercase letters.

Piet Zwart created a total of 275 designs in 10 years for the NKF Company, almost all typographical works.

Piet Zwart experimented with small and large letters, circles and rectangles, visual puns, repetition and alliteration.

Piet Zwart resigned in 1933 to become an interior, industrial and furniture designer.

Piet Zwart began using photographic images in his compositions in 1926.

Piet Zwart experimented with photography while working for the NKF catalog.

Piet Zwart was a member of the Ring neuer Werbegestalter which is an avant-garde group of advertisement designers.

Piet Zwart helped with other areas of the company, too.

Piet Zwart was the first to design a kitchen for mass production.

Piet Zwart is best known for his design of the Bruynzeel modular kitchen in 1937, which is still available today.

In 2000, Piet Zwart was awarded the "Designer of the Century" award by the Association of Dutch Designers.