hansje van halem

September 3rd, 2009 · 3 Comments

Do you know Amsterdam designer Hansje van Halem’s work? It’s completely different from a lot of stuff you see these days, and her line work is unbelievable. The patience…

Of designing type, she says:

“Somewhere half way through my studies I got a click with type. By drawing, scanning and tracing the distance between me and the computer reduced. (2001-2) When I borrowed a mouse-pen in 2002 I found a way to do hand labour in the computer.

My focus has never been the shape of the letter, but the tint of it. With making up little systems and rules I attack the original shape of existing type. I still perceive it as practising, hoping that someday I’ll start a type from scratch.

I keep ending up drawing with lines. Time after time it keeps being my perfect way for making gradients in black and white. It’s an ongoing fight in line widths, scale, texture, cluttering and most of all handwriting. Despite the fact that my letters are made on the computer, I love uneven details, irregularities, visible exhaustion and visible progress in drawings.” —Hansje