DESCRIPTION:
In 2003, Hansje van Halem graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam, and her work has since covered just about every typographic application there is: reports, catalogs, invitations, typefaces, exhibition typography, newspapers, and magazines. (“Mainly in black and white,” she admits.) Van Halem’s clients have included VPRO, a Dutch television broadcasting company; Droog Design, an industrial design collective; Amsterdamse Kunstraad, a municipal department for art and culture; and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.

VOICE:
“I like graphic design to be touchable, flipable, but most of all, simple and logical,” she says. “My work is driven by the urge to get closer to the final result, preferably with a detour and a lot of ine¡Öciency, because I never know what I may meet on my way there. It works to know as little as possible, to leave space for misinterpretation. Sometimes I get inspired just by the process of making.”

DISTINCTIVE MARKINGS:
“I like repeating simple, boring activities. The building up from consistent repetition of one activity—that’s what I find myself attracted to.” She claims her creative process often follows the same pattern: “Start, work, work more. Evaluate, hate, work, decide. Work, finish, think.”

HABITAT:
Van Halem shares a studio space with two friends. It’s located in a beautiful renovated warehouse on the waterside, near the center of Amsterdam. Unfortunately, they see none of this beauty: “Our view is blocked by a wall outside our window,” she laments.

SPOTTED BY:
Cornelia Blatter, co-founder of COMA, New York and Amsterdam: “There is a renewed attention being paid to the handmade aspects of graphic design. Hansje’s work is part of this. In recent work she has used pencil-drawn letters and handmade ‘traces.’ For Droog Design, she designed the lettering for a Salone di Mobili exhibition in Milan last spring. Van Halem both drew and embroidered words, in line with both the concept and title of the exhibition, ‘Go Slow.’”

CONTACT:
+31.2.0419.1724 | hansje@hansje.net

Written by Marcy Slane