Ontwerp voor een reclame voor R.W.P. de Vries Jr. te Edam 1884 - 1952

This is a promotional design for R.W.P. de Vries Jr. in Edam, made with ink on paper. It’s an advert, but the graphic quality is what grabs me: the handmade lettering and the way the text itself becomes a set of marks. I think about how an image comes together through layers of intention and chance. Here the solid blacks and open whites create a striking visual rhythm. Look how the frame is built from these jagged, almost gothic forms, echoing the list of book-related services. It's like the frame is a visual poem, each element carefully considered, yet there's a raw, immediate quality, a sense of directness that I find so appealing. The whole thing reminds me of the early work of someone like Emil Ruder, where typography becomes image. It’s this back-and-forth between representation and abstraction that makes art so endlessly fascinating. There's no single answer, just the ongoing conversation.