This book (which i recently acquired in a second hand bookshop) is one of the seminal pieces of dutch design made by the master ‘piet zwart’.
here’s a short excerpt about the book:
Het boek van PTT, Nederlandsche Rotogravure Mij., Leiden, Netherlands, 1938.
25×18 cm, 50pp,
One of the seminal designs of the 30s. Commissioned by the Dutch PTT, Zwart, commencing in 1930, wrote and designed this book to explain the workings of the telephone and postal systems to schoolchildren. Eight years later he completed the task. Noteworthy for its masterful use of experimental type, photomontage, puppetry, stage photography and pencil illustration. There is considerable Russian influence here which is not surprising considering Zwart met El Lissitsky in the early 20s (learning a great deal from him regards the integration of photography). Zwart was also considerably influenced by Rodchenko.
[…] of subject matter, the cover of the first issue showed a detail of piet zwarts’ seminal ptt book and paved the way for the balanced and international vision that has characterised the magazine […]
pingback by me studio » cool iris — 20-03-2012
[…] this particular piece (design uncredited) brings to mind two other classic pieces of print: firstly in terms of style the original versions of marshall mcluhans’ seminal books and secondly, in terms of content and approach, piet zwarts’ often quoted het boek van ptt […]
pingback by me studio » cheque check — 14-04-2012
[…] avant-garde en alles wat er ‘bewoog’ in die tijd. Zijn boek is voor mij een zeldzaam en bewonderenswaardig voorbeeld van hoe speelsheid van geest en creatieve experimenteerdrift tot vernieuwing […]
pingback by me studio » the cortical homunculus — 16-09-2012