Bandontwerp voor: Ina Boudier-Bakker, Machten, 1902 1903

This is a design for a book cover from 1902 by Reinier Willem Petrus de Vries, and it's got this great old-school geometric vibe. Look at those crisp lines laid over that paper with the faint grid! I can imagine De Vries hunched over this, totally absorbed. What was he thinking about, working on this commission? Maybe he was sketching away, trying to balance the old and new, while thinking about the author and the story the cover would encapsulate. There's something so satisfying about seeing the process, the bones of the design. It's like he’s saying, "Here's how it's done, folks!" You can see the cogs turning, the way simple shapes become something more, something that speaks to the soul of the book. It's a quiet nod to the power of design, and a reminder that everything, even a book cover, starts with a sketch and an idea.