Ontwerp voor het lustrumboek van de Vakschool voor de typografie te Utrecht 1912

Editor: So, this is “Ontwerp voor het lustrumboek van de Vakschool voor de typografie te Utrecht,” designed in 1912 by Reinier Willem Petrus de Vries. It looks like a poster or print, perhaps for a school’s anniversary book. It's simple, almost austere, but with that really elegant typeface. What leaps out at you? Curator: It whispers, doesn't it? A delicate balance. You've got the very ordered framework—that classic Art Nouveau striving for geometric precision—but then those wonderful swirling letterforms almost break free. Doesn't it make you wonder what a 'Vakschool voor de Typografie' actually *did* back then? Like, were they as obsessed with serifs as we are now? I bet they were! Editor: Totally! What’s the deal with the frame around the text? Is that just a common design element? Curator: The frame, for me, it’s all about containment. The exuberance of the type wants to expand, to breathe, but it's held. It gives a sense of formality – this *is* for a school, after all – but that tension… it's delicious. Do you feel it pointing you to a particular era? That tension between modernity and tradition… Editor: Definitely feels turn-of-the-century-ish. What is your impression? Curator: This piece, in a quiet way, reflects the energy of the time. Before everything changed. The first World War changed all that. I mean, this is technically 'just' typography, but it is brimming with personality. Imagine that school, full of these designers. All those debates! Editor: It makes me appreciate the artistry in something we take for granted now, the fonts we see everywhere. Curator: Exactly! That is why it’s so cool that pieces like this can make us see type with fresh eyes, now doesn’t it?