‘It's All Graphic’ is a series of events on graphic design, addressing its cultural and social impact. It is co-produced between the Wim Crouwel Institute and Pakhuis de Zwijger, and supported by NADD (Netwerk Archieven Design en Digitale Cultuur). The Wim Crouwel Institute investigates the heritage, current and future position of Dutch graphic design. The Wim Crouwel Institute is supported by Pictoright Fonds, Bijzondere Collecties/Allard Pierson, and the Amsterdam University Fund.
SAVE THE DATE: WEDNESDAY 10 SEPTEMBER 2025 IT'S ALL GRAPHIC#14
Tuesday 03-06-2025
Other Typographies: Reshaping language from distinct perspectives
Tuesday 03-06-2025
This iteration of ‘It's All Graphic’ aims to aims to explore conditions surrounding the typographic reproduction of language through different perspectives.
On the 3rd of June 2025 the Wim Crouwel Institute will host a discussion inviting designers to talk about their practices, expanding the field of typography and type design. While sharing insight from their practices the panellists focus on ways of typography and distributing type design as much as disseminating their work.
The discussions will depart from positions of countering dominant norms of design, working against typographical hegemonies and practicing design rooted in identities and positions. If conformity may come with concerns of homogeneity and exclusion, how can practices of typography play a key role in social change?
Speakers:
. Céline Hurka is an independent type designer based in The Hague, NL. In her practice, she aims to play with, question, and break prevailing conventions. She is a member of the Zefir7 collective, organising talks at Stroom Den Haag, and has been lecturing at various institutions internationally, including the MA program Type and Media (Royal Academy of Arts, The Hague), and the MA Art Direction program of LABASAD (Barcelona). In 2023 she launched her foundry and has been expanding her catalogue ever since.
. Xiaoyuan Gao is a Rotterdam-based freelance graphic designer, image-maker, type designer and the initiator of “notyourtype foundry”. While experimenting with unconventional approaches to type design and typesetting, she sees type design as a tool making process. The foundry is dedicated to showcasing and supporting experimental type design works of BIPOC and FLINTA* designers and assists people by offering technical support and publishing plans for their type design works.
. Johanna Ehde & Elisabeth Rafstedt are graphic designers and founders of the Amsterdam (NL) based design collective Rietlanden Women’s Office (RWO). Their practice is interested in current and historical issues connected to the role of women in (reproductive) work and collaborative graphic design. The basis of their work is a printed publication series called MsHeresies — an inquiry into collaborative graphic design practices and the ornament as a form of work critique.
MODERATORS
Elisabeth Klement is an Estonian graphic designer, educator, and organiser living and working in Amsterdam. Elisabeth teaches in the Graphic Design department at Gerrit Rietveld Academie. Together with Pieter Verbeke founded San Serriffe(2011), an art and design book shop, exhibition space, workshop and performance venue in Amsterdam. Since 2022 Elisabeth is the art director of Metropolis M magazine. As a graphic designer, Elisabeth leads a practice rooted in design justice and collectivity.
Kylièn Sarino Bergh is a researcher, writer and practitioner in the field of graphic design. He is a fellow of the Wim Crouwel Institute in Amsterdam (NL), board member of Zefir7 and lecturer histories and theories of graphic design at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague, the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam and the University of Amsterdam.
Photographer: Jordi de Vetten
Graphic design: Elisabeth Klement
January 2025
DOUBLE ROLE, TRIPLE BOND Designing and Publishing
During this edition of ‘It's All Graphic’, the four invited speakers discuss connecting (and conflicting?) roles in their hybrid practices as graphic designers, publishers, writers, researchers and activists.
On 20 January 2025 the Wim Crouwel Institute kicks off the year again with a new ‘It's All Graphic’, about hybrid graphic design practices, on the connecting roles of the publisher and graphic designer. For this edition we have invited internationally operating publishers/designers, who not only combine the roles of publisher and designer in their singular way, but also write, research, and initiate activism and wider debate on graphic design and its possible role and impact.
More and more, we see designers’ practices becoming mixed and interdisciplinary: designers can also be organizers, activists, gardeners, writers, mediators, artists, editors, teachers (and many more roles than this). If this is a useful way of moving forward, what can this galvanize, how can we specifically be inspired by this? Or does this bandwidth of activities ‘dilute’ the fundamentals and specific expertise of the graphic design practice?
Find out for yourself on January 20, and listen to, and exchange with:
• Sara de Bondt has been a designer for and with many cultural organizations in both the UK and Belgium. Together with Antony Hudek she set up Occasional Papers in 2008, which publishes on design history and writing (e.g. an anthology of texts by Rick Poynor), and addresses other visual disciplines. Sarah has just finished her PhD, Off the Grid, on the histories of Belgian graphic design.
• Nina Paim is a Brazilian graphic designer, who co-initiated Futuress, an online research and publishing community, ‘where feminism, design and politics meet’. She was co-editor and author of Design Struggles (on de-colonial perspectives on design, with Claudia Mareis) and in 2023 has started her own publishing house, based in Porto, called Bikini Books, issuing paper books with a focus on design and feminist practices.
• Sacha Léopold & François Havegeer have a ‘triple practice’, all activities stemming from graphic design. With their interdisciplinary design studio Syndicat they have set up Empire Books and Revue faire. The latter dives into specific topics and histories of graphic design, with special issues on Wim Crouwel, Jan van Toorn, and much more.
With moderators Simone Trum and Astrid Vorstermans these designers engage in a conversation about what they do, how they understand ‘publishing’ and ‘designing’ (with many examples from their side), how this combination feeds into to their research, activism, writing (and vice versa), and how they see the future of graphic design.
MODERATORS
Designer Simone Trum (www.teamthursday.com) and publisher Astrid Vorstermans (www.valiz.nl) are both board members of the Wim Crouwel Institute, which explores how the heritage of Dutch graphic design can be activated and expanded for the present and future.
Photographer: Simon Pillaud
Graphic design: Simone Trum
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11 JANUARY 2024
DUBBELROL EN MEERVOUDSSPEL Ontwerpen en uitgeven
On January 11, 2024, the Wim Crouwel Institute kicked off the year with a new “It's All Graphic,” about the connecting roles of the graphic designer and publisher. More and more we see that the practice of designers is becoming hybrid, that designers can also be parallel organizers, activists, cooks, mediators, editors, teachers (and much more). In the Netherlands and Flanders there is a strong culture of designers who also publish, and vice versa, of publishers who design, all with different motivations and very different approaches. Some work alongside and with artists and photographers to translate their work into a publication in the best possible way, others see publishing as a tool to set up communal and social actions. Results: from monumental to ephemeral, from aesthetic to activist, from paper book to radio play.
For this It's All Graphic, five designer-publishers have been invited to discuss their thriving and connecting publishing/design practices. Moderators Roosje Klap (designer) and Astrid Vorstermans (publisher) will talk to them about what they do, how they conceive of “publishing,” how they see the different roles, what drives them, what kind of experience and expertise interacts, where their inspiration and specific networks are. Overarching question is how the diversity of views and experiences can provide energetic futures for both designers and publishers.
Moderated by Roosje Klap and Astrid Vorstermans, the speakers were:
BeBeBooks — Michiel Terpelle - www.bebebooks.be - www.michielterpelle.nl
Eriskay Connection — Rob van Hoesel - www.eriskayconnection.com
Fucking Good Art — Nienke Terpsma - www.fuckinggoodart.nl
Fw:Books — Hans Gremmen - www.fw-books.nl
Hackers & Designers — Anja Groten - www.hackersanddesigners.nl
Photographer: Simon Pillaud
Graphic design: Roosje Klap
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IT’S ALL GRAPHIC #10
29 JUNE 2023
Out of Context?
Curating and Exhibiting Graphic Design
This year’s ‘It’s All Graphic’ event turned a spotlight on how graphic design is collected, curated and displayed in a range of museum and more-than-museum settings. From their perspectives as curators, designers and directors at institutions ranging from the national to the hyper-local, the invited panelists will explain the practices of acquiring, interpreting and framing graphic design. In discussion with moderators Roosje Klap and Alice Twemlow, the speakers will share their individual ambitions and achievements in reaching new audiences, diversifying the canon, as well as their doubts and dilemmas concerning graphic design’s cultural significance and its tense relationship with the white cube..
Moderated by Alice Twemlow and Roosje Klap, the speakers were::
Mariina Backic, Le Signe, National Centre for Graphic Design + Festival, Chaumont, France: ON GRAPHIC DESIGN CURATION AT FESTIVAL VS MUSEUM, COLLECTING ETC.
Elisabeth Klement, co-founder, San Serriffe bookstore, Amsterdam, ON HOW A BOOKSTORE PERFORMS AS EXHIBITION SPACE
Maureen Mooren, art director, The New Institute, Rotterdam ON HOW GRAPHIC IDENTITY FOR AN INSTITUTION CAN BE A FORM OF CURATION
Peter Bil’ak, founder of Typotheque and Works that Work, REFLECTING BACK ON HIS EXHIBITION AND ESSAY Graphic Design in in the White Cube
Ali As’Ad, independent curator ABOUT CURATING THE EXHIBITION OF PREMSELAS BOOK COLLECTION IN VAN EESTEREN MUSEUM
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1 DECEMBER 2022
Critical Interventions in the (Graphic Design) Archive
The Wim Crouwel Institute encourages fresh perspectives on the links between graphic design’s heritage and contemporary practice. It is particularly interested in how graphic design history can be understood in the light of today’s pressing socio-political issues.
For this year’s ‘It’s All Graphic’, specially curated to follow Prof. Dr. Alice Twemlow's inaugural lecture at the University of Amsterdam, the invited speakers addressed the role of graphic design in decolonizing, depatriarchalizing, and other reframings of the archive.
Moderated by Alice Twemlow and Roosje Klap, the speakers were:
Syrian Graphic Design Archive (Kinda Ghannoum and Sally Alassafen)
Grafis Nusantara
Tabea Nixdorff, curator, Feminist Design Strategies
Remco van Bladel, co-founder, Archival Consciousness
Alice Wong, media-artist-in-residence, Open Archive 3.0
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Previous editions of It's All Graphic
IT'S ALL GRAPHIC#13 OTHER TYPOGRAPHIES: Reshaping language from distinct perspectives
IT'S ALL GRAPHIC #12 DOUBLE ROLE, TRIPLE BOND | Designing and Publishing
IT'S ALL GRAPHIC #11 DUBBELROL EN MEERVOUDSSPEL | Ontwerpen en uitgeven
IT'S ALL GRAPHIC #10 Out of Context? Curating and Exhibiting Graphic Design
IT'S ALL GRAPHIC #9 Critical Interventions in the (Graphic Design) Archive Basma Hamdy, Nusantara, Hala al Afsaa, Sally Alassafen, Kinda Ghannoum, Tabea Nixdorff, Remco can Bladel, Alice Wong
IT’S ALL GRAPHIC #8 Craft 2.0: new imaginations of the graphic design practice Chris Kore, Gilles de Brock, Mitch Paone (Dia Studio), Our Polite Society, Vera van de Seyp
IT’S ALL GRAPHIC #7 Vital Design: An homage to the design of organisations that play vital roles in today's society With Roel Stavorinus, Jaco Emmen, Tom Dorresteijn en Archie Lyons, 07-05-2020
IT’S ALL GRAPHIC #6 Data visualization: Looking into the past and future of data and design. A co-podruction with Graphic Matters. With Dennis Elbers, Gert Franke, Paul Mijksenaar, Suze Swarte, Ben Prins (NOS op 3), 01-10-2019
IT’S ALL GRAPHIC #5 About Illustration: An evening about illustrators and their field of work. With Rogier Trompert, Talitha Snel, Kim Raad, Helen van Vliet, Gert Gerrits, Markus Praat, 23-04-2019
IT’S ALL GRAPHIC #4 Logo x Logo Visual identity development: where did we start out and where are we heading? With Roel Stavorinus. Met Claire Parker, Erik de haas, Smack, Henk Haaima, Dennis Flinterman, Roel Stavorinus, 15-11-2018
IT’S ALL GRAPHIC #3 The graphic revolution: What skills are needed to prepare designers for the future? With Sherida Kuffour, Silvio Lorusso, Erwin Slegers, Hanneke Metselaar, Frederike Huygen, 17-04-2018
IT’S ALL GRAPHIC #2 Activism and graphic design: How can graphic design be activist? With Lies Ros, Roosje Klap, Yuri Veerman, Ruben Pater, Raul Balai, Chris Vermaas, 16-11-2017
IT’S ALL GRAPHIC #1 Culture of Dutch design agencies (around Total Design) With Paul Mijksenaar, Arlette Brouwers, Joost Klinkenberg, Graham Sturt, Anne Miltenburg and Oygar Erdal, 24-05-2017