In one of our History of Graphic Design Class, we talked about a movement called De Stijl which is used to refer to a body of work from 1917 to 1931 founded in the Netherlands. De Stijl, or in its English traslation called The Style, is a pure abstraction where the artists tear down the objects of their artwork into its most essential form and colors by simplifying the object into basic shapes and used only basic colors other than black and white. The famous Mondrian was one of the people behind this movement.
Anyway, it is interesting to know that one of my favorite illustrator/designer Dick Bruna, was religiously use his stroke under the influence of De Stijl. Bruna is probably the most known as the creator of Nintje or Miffy (in English), a small female rabbit shaped in thick lines and dressed in 1 or 2 primary colors. He created Miffy in 1955, as a follow up to his bedtime story to his son. All of the stories are about things that are easy for children to understand, and daily life situations like going to school or to the zoo. The story always end with happy ending.
Even though his style is not realistic and extremely simple, they are instantly recognizable, we can tell that Miffy is obviously a rabbit.
From Graphic Production class’ first project, I learned that simplifying is not an easy attempt. Looking through the innocence simplicity of Bruna’s works make me feel happy and more motivated to grab my sketch book. One of his inspirational quotes is “I did about 2000 covers altogether, for all sorts of books – from Shakespeare to James Bond – and I always had the idea that I must give 100%, no matter who the author was.” Dick Bruna.
Aside from drawing the world of Miffy and other children books, Dick Bruna also illustrated and designed book covers and posters for his dad’s publishing company A.W. Bruna and Zoon.
HAPPINESS RUNS 