Gert dumbar biography

Studio Dumbar is a Dutch graphic design agency.

History

Studio Dumbar was founded by Gert Dumbar in 1977, in the Hague.^[1] In 2003, the studio moved to Rotterdam, as Michel de Boer took over the creative direction, after Gert Dumbar's retirement. In 2011 Liza Enebeis became the studio's third creative director. The studio was acquired by Dept, a digital marketing firm, in 2016.

Philosophy and influence

Studio Dumbar describes itself as “an international design agency specialised in visual branding and online branding”.

Fragmented, sometimes complex to the edge of chaos, and layered with complex typography, many Dumbar projects in the early 1980s caused consternation among advocates of a more ordered aesthetic. But by the late 1980s many European designers were mimicking Studio Dumbar's approach, causing Gert Dumbar to place a moratorium on these techniques within his firm.^[2]

Awards

References

External links

The Dutch are past masters at celebrating their major graphic designers with serious biographical studies, but one key figure of the late twentieth-century Dutch scene has been overlooked until now. Gert Dumbar, founder of the formidable Studio Dumbar in The Hague, retired in 2003 at the relatively early age of 63, feeling he was in danger of repeating himself. While Studio Dumbar continued with his name, it became a different kind of company operating in a much-changed climate. The exemplary, mostly pre-digital achievements of the studio, made possible by Dumbar’s playfully anarchic leadership, are now at risk of being forgotten. For anyone committed to the expressive cultural possibilities of graphic design, the studio’s highly original, award-decorated projects of the 1980s still have plenty to teach us – perhaps more so today than ever.

Gert Dumbar: Gentleman Maverick of Dutch Design is the latest design monograph from the Amsterdam publisher Valiz – with far-sighted support from three cultural foundations. It follows similarly hefty and detailed volumes from Valiz about

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