Dutch Expressive Postmodernism (Studio Dumbar & Hard Werken)

• Treat letters as illustration: enlarge, cut apart, distort and mix typefaces until the type becomes part of the picture, and let the mismatches between faces stand.
• Build the image as a physical set (flat artwork, props, figurines and bars arranged in real space) and photograph it, so that the poster plays with the viewer's sense of depth and perspective.
• Assemble rather than compose: layer cut-out figures, pattern, painted elements and photographic fragments into one crude, energetic whole, complex to the edge of chaos, with no single reading order.
• Use a lot of colour and little type: clashing, saturated hues or De Stijl primaries in flat fields and bars, never a sober one- or two-colour scheme.
• Take modernist building blocks such as the grid, the square, Univers and coloured bars, then separate, rescale and layer them. Play with dogmatic forms in a non-dogmatic way, even for a postal service or a police force.

The Hague and Rotterdam. Gert Dumbar, who had set up Teldesign's graphic department from 1963, moved, at Teldesign, from modernism towards Dada, and with posters such as his Mondriaan poster for the Gemeentemuseum (1971–72) introduced staged photography, a method adapted from Aleksandr Rodchenko's experiments, to the Netherlands. He founded Studio Dumbar in The Hague in 1977. Hard Werken began as a magazine in 1979 at the Grafische Werkplaats of the Rotterdamse Kunststichting, on Willem Kars's initiative, with Henk Elenga, Kees de Gruiter, Gerard Hadders, Tom van den Haspel and Rick Vermeulen. It worked as a design office from 1982 until 1994, when it took over the packaging firm Ten Cate Bergmans and continued as Inizio Design in Amsterdam

1. Wikipedia (nl), Hard Werken (magazine from April 1979 at the Grafische Werkplaats of the Rotterdamse Kunststichting on Willem Kars's initiative; design office 1982–1994; LantarenVenster and Lijnbaancentrum posters; annual IFFR posters with the tiger's head; Bert Bakker covers including De naam van de roos; Hub Hubben 1995: 'Ordening was een vies woord', mutilated typefaces, bizarre colour combinations, cut or staged photographs; Ron Kaal, NRC 1995: 'Typografie als illustratie', anti-functionalism, anti-Amsterdam; H.N. Werkmanprijs 1989; exhibitions 'Rotterdamse School?' 1988 and Kunsthal Rotterdam 1995; 1994 takeover of the Gooi packaging firm Ten Cate Bergmans, continued as Inizio Design in Amsterdam): https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_Werken
2. Wikipedia, Studio Dumbar (founded 1977 in The Hague by Gert Dumbar; early-1980s work 'fragmented, sometimes complex to the edge of chaos' with layered typography; Dutch National Police identity and liveries 1993): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio_Dumbar
3. Wikipedia (nl), Gert Dumbar (Teldesign from 1963, NS and PTT clients; 'van modernist tot dadaist' at Teldesign; Studio Dumbar 1977; police logo 1993; H.N. Werkmanprijs 1983): https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gert_Dumbar
4. Wim Crouwel Instituut, archive: Studio Dumbar (Dumbar photographed plaster figurines he made himself, combined with playful typography; Lex van Pieterson his usual photographer; PTT identity first with Total Design; Theater Zeebelt printed matter; staged photography discontinued in 1993 because it was 'being imitated too much'): https://wimcrouwelinstituut.nl/en/archief/studio-dumbar/object1
5. Dutch Design Awards, BNO Piet Zwart Award 2009: Gert Dumbar (introduced 'staged photography' to the Netherlands through his posters; Mondriaan poster with coloured bars photographed in space; co-founder of Tel Design and Theater Zeebelt; PTT and police identities; Mijksenaar sees Dumbar's strongest affinity with Piet Zwart, in his playfulness): https://www.dutchdesignawards.nl/en/gallery/gert-dumbar/
6. People's Graphic Design Archive, 'Holland Festival, Nina Wiener' performance poster (Studio Dumbar, 1987, 118 × 83 cm; quoting Lewis Blackwell, Twentieth-Century Type and Beyond, p. 136: the studio 'often used constructions that mixed flat art with staged photography', playing with the viewer's perspective): https://peoplesgdarchive.org/item/1723/holland-festival-nina-wiener-performance-poster
7. Centre Pompidou, Affiche De Stijl, Gert Dumbar, photography Lex van Pieterson, 1982, offset, 83 × 117.5 cm, AM 2020-1-324: https://www.centrepompidou.fr/en/ressources/oeuvre/cjEp68q
8. Centre Pompidou, Affiche Mondrian, Gert Dumbar, 1972 (A-G-I dates the design 1971), offset, 116 × 83 cm, AM 2020-1-323, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag: https://www.centrepompidou.fr/en/ressources/oeuvre/cbEpzy9
9. Alliance Graphique Internationale, Gert Dumbar, Mondriaan, exhibition poster, 1971: https://a-g-i.org/design/mondriaan-exhibition-poster
10. L'Affichiste, De Stijl poster, official 1994 reissue printed by Toppan from the collection The 100 best posters from Europe and the United States 1945–1990, whose text it quotes (originally created by Gert Dumbar in 1982 for an exhibition about De Stijl; made by staged photography, a method 'adapted from experiments by the Russian Constructivist Aleksandr Rodchenko'; Dumbar arranged all the objects, including 'a portrait of Gerrit Rietveld glued to a support'): https://www.laffichiste.com/products/1994-american-exhibition-poster-de-stijl-exhibition-the-100-best-posters-collection
11. Rijksmuseum, Lunchpauze-programma, Studio Dumbar and Lex van Pieterson, 1992–1993, offset, RP-P-RMA3706: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/RP-P-RMA3706
12. Hugh Aldersey-Williams, 'Flexible geometry', Eye 1, Autumn 1990 (the PTT identity at privatisation in 1989; Ton van Bragt's 'deconstruction sketch'; 'p t t' in a modified Univers 65; Dumbar: 'totally anti-clarity because clarity can be very boring'; 'a lot of colour and little type'): https://eyemagazine.com/feature/article/flexible-geometry
13. Max Bruinsma, 'Enigma variations', Eye 19, Winter 1995 (Studio Dumbar's posters for the Zeebelt Theatre as 'anarchic type experiments'): https://eyemagazine.com/feature/article/enigma-variations
14. Alex J. Todd, 'Hard-working hooligans', Eye 98, Spring 2019, review of Hard Werken: One for All (the China: Life and Work poster, 1981; Dansproduktie stage designs; IFFR and Bert Bakker collaborations; staged photography among the studio's fields): https://eyemagazine.com/review/article/hard-working-hooligans
15. Valiz, Ian Horton and Bettina Furnée, Hard Werken • One for All: Graphic Art and Design 1979–1994 (2018; quotes Rick Poynor in Blueprint no. 59, 1989 on 'scattershot lay-outs, jarring mismatches of type, shrieking colours'): https://valiz.nl/en/publications/hard-werken-one-for-all
16. Gallery 400, University of Illinois Chicago, 'Posters to Postage Stamps: An Exhibition of Contemporary Dutch Design' (5 November – 6 December 1986, organised by Katherine McCoy and Doug Kisor; Total Design and Hard Werken as 'the two poles of Dutch design in the mid-1980s'; checklist with Studio Dumbar and Hard Werken works including Ohrendierenbaby!, 1984; the checklist also lists Tel Design: Gert Dumbar, Mondrian, 1972): https://gallery400.uic.edu/exhibition/posterstopostagestamps
17. Design Reviewed, Hard Werken, No 07, May–June 1980: https://designreviewed.com/artefacts/hard-werken-no-07-may-june-1980/
18. Rick Poynor, review of Max Bruinsma and Leonie ten Duis, Gert Dumbar: Gentleman Maverick of Dutch Design (Valiz), Eye 107, Winter 2025: https://eyemagazine.com/review/article/gentlemans-relish

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