Piet Zwart – LAGA rubber flooring
This is the first typographic design of Piet Zwart. It is created for the LAGA rubber floor manufacturer while Zwart was still working for the architect Berlage. In the 1920s, the founder of LAGA found out Zwart’s passion for typography and offered him this commission. From this early work, Zwart’s architectural training background appears evident: the logo he built for LAGA is an interlocking square which is similar to the construction of LAGA floors. Zwart sees built a composition with visual elements similar to the architect finding the appropriate place for parts of the building. Zwart’s graphic design work clearly shows the influence of Constructivism, and the use of horizontal and vertical elements and his choice of color in this piece is reflecting the De Stiljl. For Piet Zwart, this task altered his life because it points to his future while he felt lost. This design is an excellent example of Zwart’s work because well expressed Zwart’s professional concepts – typotekt, a combination of typographer and architect. The typographic designs of Zwart are constructive because they had a rational structure and composition. In this work, he assembled letters, blanks, and symbols to ensure a rational composition. The emphasis on geometric simplicity shown in this project is a significant characteristic of Zwart. And besides simplicity, this project illustrates that readability is also one of the foremost features. Piet Zwart believes reading is a process that directly involved the reader and wanted to change the way people read through new typography.
Sources:
http://www.modernism101.com/zwart_typograhische.php
http://www.iconofgraphics.com/Piet-Zwart/
It is crazy to think a well-known typographer’s first major work started on the rubber floor of LAGA. The design clearly shows his architectural background in the way the design gravitates your attention and the color scheme choices he used to draw emphasis to the left paragraph. The re arrow makes you want to read the paragraph to the left, which is what the manufacturer could have requested. The shapes reminded me of tall buildings. he achieved his goal of changing the way people read through new typography. The video below is a good representation of Zwart’s thoughts and perspectives.