Colorful posters, signs and symbols, visual languages and paths carved into the unknown — I entered his universe for an hour Richard NiessenI peeked into his library and explored a special place – the Palace of Typographic Masonry (Palatul de Piatră Tipografica, in a clumsy attempt at translation). Richard is known for his innovative identities, tangents with architecture and countless collaborations with artists eager for visual adventures. From experiments to research and connections, Richard has forged his own path and visual language, broadening horizons and opening worlds.
Our conversation took the form of an exploration, going through different rooms and directions in search of hidden visual treasures and open answers – a brief foray into what will happen at Design Sessions talkon October 31 at the Residence9. (To participate, find the registration form here).
“VI see graphic design as a mediating discipline, connecting people or information to people. So we try to show the mechanisms behind or at least describe them, show how graphic design works as a tool in society, how it influences what philosophers call symbolic order of things,” says Richard.
Story with Richard Niessen further on the invisible power structures of design, the need for diversity, the danger of conformity, and those strange things to fight the mundane.
When he became a graphic designer
It’s actually a question I often ask my students because, in a way, it’s a rather little-known profession. We are surrounded by all these graphically designed and created things, but no one really knows about the decisions behind them, and people still have an influence on these things. But when I was little I had no idea, I didn’t grow up in an artistic or culturally inclined environment. Also, I remember a visit to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, where I was deeply impressed by the paintings and everything that was there. And I resonated very well with that, plus I already had a passion for comics and drawing in general.
I still remember a moment in high school, when I went to an exhibition of his Joost Blacka Dutch illustrator and designer. I think I was 15 at the time and I was totally blown away by his designs: he used a lot of his own lettering and I was totally fascinated by it. Then I read his bio on a wall where it said he studied at a design school to become a graphic designer and then I thought, OK, that’s what I want to do.
“A way to communicate”
Later I started working on the school newspaper and making various posters, so for me graphic design became a way to communicate with the world around me somehow. I would make these comics that I would copy and give to my classmates, so it was more of a tool for me, and also something interesting and visually appealing. Then, at 17, I entered the Rietveld Academy, where he also studied Esther (De Vries, book designer and his wife)and after I graduated I became a graphic designer.
A book that inspired you
Yes, I have this pretty old book from ’91 by Linda van Deursen, a catalog for Gerard van de Kaap. And it has this very nineties aesthetic, like a big flyer, and the graphic language ended up mixing with the artist’s work in a way, so it was very beautiful.
And I remember when the artist Jennifer Tee he asked me to do the design for his book and part of the concept was to reflect the style of his works, so I created something that became a work in itself, very unwieldy and almost a performance to take apart. It was like a big map tracing the course of his work, something you had to interact with as a reader, and that approach stayed with me. After this project, we had all sorts of other artistic collaborations, keeping this idea of somehow translating an artist’s work into a visual language.
Povestea Palace of Typographic Masonry
About 20 years ago I went to his exhibition Hendrik Wijdeveldvery important architect and graphic designer of the 1920s and 1930s and editor of the magazine Twists and turnswhere he invites various artists and designers to contribute and create these gorgeous covers.
And in his work as a designer, he used certain typographical elements to build his designs and compositions, and the result looked like brick letters. That’s how his colleagues in the guild came to give him this nickname: the typographic bricklayer (typographic masoner).
I resonated strongly with this aspect, especially since at the time I saw the exhibition I was also working with such details, putting everything together almost like a builder. So I took the name and I think in 2007 we had an exhibition where we created a three-dimensional city called TM City (Typographic Masonry City). And then when I wanted to create this personal graphic design museum, I thought maybe this palace could be part of TM City, so I called it Palace of Typographic Masonry.
The world as a palace. Where would graphic design fit in this imaginary structure?
Ah, that’s a difficult question – I think it’s too complicated to see the whole world as a building, we’d need more constructions.
Incidentally, one of the rooms in the Palace where I am working now is called Mechanics of Mediation Discipline (the Mechanics of the Mediating Discipline) — because I see graphic design as a mediating discipline, connecting people or information to people. Also as a discipline in itself, it is not autonomous — there are always certain almost invisible power structures. So we try to show the mechanisms behind or at least describe them, show how graphic design works as a tool in society, how it influences what philosophers call symbolic order of things. Because graphic design is a tool that can manipulate opinions and translate ideas into images so that they resonate with people, so in a way it’s a profession that holds quite a lot of power.
But at the same time, it’s just one cog in a much bigger machine, so I think it’s good to know how it works.
In the palace, these mechanisms have their place on the 3rd floor, and I imagine this place as a room where a large clockwork machine works. And we’d have this curtain that masks the mechanism, which you can pull aside to see how things work—so that’s where the profession or the mechanisms of the profession would be, at least.
What it takes to be a good graphic designer
I think there is an element of psychology or understanding the human mind, but as far as I’m concerned I certainly don’t have that knowledge, not in a conscious way, at least. But of course, when I work on a project I try to understand it as best as possible through design, through sketches and research, testing solutions. Then comes a moment when I find the right shape, the reading key, at least as I see the interpretation of the project.
I think when you make something deeply specific and personal it also becomes universal. And yet, when you do something mediocre, it doesn’t have much impact on people, precisely because it gets stuck in a stream of mundane things. What we’re seeing more and more lately: a lot of things that look the same and don’t resonate with you anymore.
Diversity & uniformity
Look, for example, I was recently working on something that seemed to me to look like nothing I know—which can make you feel quite insecure because it’s so bizarre and different from what you see around you. And this thing ends up increasing your insecurity when you’re floating in a sea of sameness, because it’s easy to feel like you’re doing something wrong.
I think it’s quite dangerous. I see the same thing happening with clients: they all want something that stands out, but they’re actually looking for something that looks like what they’ve seen before, they want the same uniformity. I just read a book by Paul Verhaeghe where he talks about norms and how they are very narrow paths that we are conditioned to follow. And the moment you behave outside the norm, you are immediately labeled as some kind of disease.
But I think that 50 years ago people were no more sick than they are today, only that society made more space, so that people who behaved a little differently could also be part of that group. And I think that’s what we need and that’s what we should do. Because now, as everyone is encouraged to conform, the way is getting narrower and narrower and there will come a time when we can’t get out of it. So I strongly believe that we should widen this space and have a broader perspective of this road.
And graphic design is such a good tool to create weird things, different things that become normal, then, in a way. Because in this way, people also become more accustomed to seeing a more varied palette of tastes.
A piece of advice for young designers
I would tell them to get off that narrow lane, to have faith.
Do not be afraid to position yourself outside of this path or even beyond it, because when you work on a project, it takes you somewhere, in an unknown area. The result, therefore, should also be unknown and like nothing else. So yeah, I’d say trust where your curiosity leads you and don’t think too much about algorithms or other people’s expectations. To try to bring something different to this world, to widen that path.
I think it’s hard and it’s getting harder. It’s pretty scary, but maybe if we talk about it more, if we do more things that aren’t so easy to understand, and if we create a kind of confidence in things that are less predictable, maybe then we’ll get off the beaten path .
That would be my advice.
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