Hard Werken • One for All
Graphic Art and Design 1979–1994
- First major publication on this riotous and highly accomplished Dutch vanguard design group
- Eclectic, hybrid. DIY, ironic, anti-modernist, tongue-in-cheek
- One of the Best Dutch Book Designs 2018!
Authors: Ian Horton & Bettina Furnée
Contributions: Russ Bestley, Max Bruinsma, Tony Credland, Frits Gierstberg, Noor Mertens
Design: 75B
2018, Valiz with Stichting Kunstpublicaties Rotterdam | supported by Creative Industries Fund NL, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, Stichting Jaap Harten Fonds | paperback | 482 pp. | 24 cm x 17 cm (portrait size) | English | ISBN 978-94-92095-17-6
Press
- Eye Magazine:'Hard-working hooligans'
- Frederike Huygen in designgeschiedenis
- Publish, 'Homage to the rule breakers'
- Hugo Bongers in Punt Komma, 'a beautiful English-language book'
- Trouw, De Verdieping: 'Brutaal, provocerend werk'
- Parool: 'Legendarisch collectief uit 010'
- Jean Paul Hinrichs - Schoon & Haaks: 'Hard Werken gedocumenteerd'
>Hard Werken • One for All is the first major publication on the experimental Rotterdam-based design studio Hard Werken [Working Hard, Travailler dur], also known for the underground magazine of the same name. Hard Werken's anarchic design, smattering high with low culture and running contrary to typographic conventions and modernist currents of the time, characterized this group as a brash, elusive, and distinctly Rotterdam phenomenon. However, working in Rotterdam and Los Angeles, the core members Henk Elenga, Kees de Gruiter, Gerard Hadders, Tom van den Haspel, Willem Kars and Rick Vermeulen also had worldwide ambitions.
This feisty and uncompromising book examines Hard Werken's practice and legacy in an international context and addresses their contemporary significance. It investigates the group’s pioneering role in the cultural life of Rotterdam and their impact abroad, especially the US, by examining the innovative aspects of Hard Werken's practice, which combined graphic and fine art languages. All is elucidated by a myriad of images and clear, concise texts.
‘The 1970/80s Dutch magazine Hard Werken has all the qualities of a pop-legend. Born of the collective desire of a group of young graphic designers from industrial Rotterdam to express themselves, they quickly achieved an influential cult status, then [the magazine] died young.’
Peter Bilak in: Dot Dot Dot magazine, Issue 1, 2000
Hard Werken ‘quite deliberately has broken every rule in the handbook’ by producing ‘scattershot lay-outs, jarring mismatches of type, shrieking colours and a veneer of industrial grime which seem calculated to assault the sensibilities of more delicate colleagues.’
Rick Poynor in: Blueprint No 59, 1989