Wim Crouwel: Book cover

There are some designers who simply inspire awe. A great post on Slanted TypoBlog reminded me that Dutch design icon Wim Crouwel is one of them. (Achtung: The post is in German, but has great pictures).

Born in Holland in 1928, Crouwel’s work with computer-inspired type predates all late 90s clichees by 30 years. Want proof? Look at his New Alphabet font (1967), or Gridnik, “the thinking man’s Courier” (late 60s). Font company The Foundry sells a collection of digitally redrawn Crouwel fonts.

Crouwel’s work with grids and type is rigid yet playful, and never stiff. It should be an inspiration to computational designers, making them think in new ways about regularity vs. chaos as a design quality.