wiedler.ch

book (design) story #361

willem sandberg:
9 jaar stedelik museum amsterdam 1945-54

stedelijk museum, amsterdam, 1954
size: 26 x 19 cm
designer: willem sandberg

lets stay with willem sandberg (1897-1984) for a few stories. as the the title "9 years stedelijk museum amsterdam 1945-54" suggests, this booklet recapitulates the museum's activities since its reopening after ww2. the text is dutch, with summaries in french.

the cover by sandberg features crude number 9s in his trademark torn paper style, combined with bold wide sans-serif type.

typically sandberg also the "relaxed" typography with all-lowercase text set unjustified, and the use of rough "wholemeal" paper; max bill often used a similar design concept – see stories 151 or 204.

interesting the text page below with a purely typographical visualisation of statistical data (visitor numbers). sandberg had been influenced by otto neurath's visual statistics later known as "isotype" (see also 79) since his stay in vienna in the 1920s. instead of the repeated symbols typical for isotype, sandberg just uses letters.