The recent release of an App that cataolgues the major Wim Crouwel exhibition at the Design Museum last year gives us an excuse to celebrate the great designer. The App for iPad has been designed by Spin and is released by Unit Editions as a digital partner to the printed catalogue.

Last year’s show was indeed awe-inspiring and really showed that designers, like Crouwel, who also worked with architecture have an enhanced sense of form and space that travels across into their graphics to very good advantage. There is something both solid and simple about Crouwel’s work. It follows the addage that a design is only finished when nothing remains to be taken away. Played down use of subdued or one colour looks smart, with as much thought going into the paper stock of letterheads and business cards as into the shape of the logos themselves.

When I saw the exhition (twice!) I was struck by the fact that these branding designs of the 1950s had not been bettered and still looked fresh and modern. Crouwel’s poster and especially his logo design remains a benchmark that all designers should be familiar with. We at GDP are proud to say how much our own logo is a nod to Crouwel.

And, of course, we can’t do a post on Crouwel without mentioning his experiments with “digital” style typefaces and letterforms, which might be some of the most over-used icons of all design ever!!

It is a pity that no image is available of the gigantic photo of Wim that loomed over the entrance to the exhibition – truly a giant of design!

You can read the Creative Review piece about the App here.

All images by Luke Hayes from last year’s Design Museum exhibition, Wim Crouwel – A Graphic Odyssey, courtesy the Design Museum Press Office.