JONGERT (Jacob)
Op en om den Afsluitdijk. Original Poster.
(Holland, 1934).
Original Poster, 430 x 380 mm, printed in black, yellow and red, with photographic illustration.
Reproduced in the catalogue of the exhibition Jac. Jongert, 1883-1942, ‘Proeven is koopen’, Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, 2009, p. 98.
Jacob Jongert (1883-1942) is one of the first advertising designers of the Netherlands. After varied studies, including being Roland Holst’s assistant and an acquaintance and colleague of S. H. de Roos [who brought the Arts & Crafts ideas of William Morris to the Netherlands and devoted his career to book design and typography] with whom he experimented with several printing techniques and discovered graphic design as his ideal art form.
The artist became, in 1923, designer for Van Nelle Coffee, Tea and Tobacco, a position he held until 1940. The Van Nelle company had an extremely modern approach towards advertising (they even commissioned Cassandre to do a poster) and he created for the firm a recognizable image with clear shapes, powerful letters and primary colours, totally Dutch avant-garde in style, and with a strict and rigorous approach directly linked to De Stijl principles. The corporate identity he created has become a milestone in the design world.
Jacob Jongert’s designs for Van Nelle have become rare items and are shown in museums (in the Museum of Modern Art in New York for example).
Light trace of fold, a fine copy.