Piet Zwart

The multidisciplinary designer Piet Zwart worked as a photographer, graphic and industrial designer, and architect in the 1920s and 30s. He is one of the most well known and influential designers from the interwar period, particularly in the field of modern graphic design. Trained as an architect at the School of Applied Arts in Amsterdam, he was hired by the architect and De Stijl member Jan Wils, from whom he absorbed the abstract, linear, and geometric qualities of De Stijl design into his own work. He soon rejected some of the movement’s principles, notably the emphasis on symmetry, the use of strict horizontals and verticals, and the stern dogmatism. In addition to De Stijl, Zwart was drawn to... more.