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Jennifer Morla, the chief creative officer at DWR, is a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI). She also teaches graphic design thesis at the California College of the Arts and her work is in the permanent collections of both the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
 Amsterdam, the city of visual literacy, was the meeting place for the 2007 Alliance Graphique International Congress. AGI is a group of 350 international designers, specifically graphic designers, who get together every year to share design opinions, showcase the design work of the host city and enjoy a good dose of eating, drinking and debating.
I stayed at a former detention center, now the Lloyd Hotel, which was recently remodeled by MVRDV, architects who were formerly with Rem Koolhaas. It was an unusual hotel in that you could book your choice of a one- to five-star room. In hindsight, my experience at the Lloyd sums up how I now view Amsterdam: egalitarian, permissive, stubborn and conceptual, with a true love of seeing beauty in materials and form (although, in my opinion, a bit hit or miss on the function part).  The conference itself was stimulating, featuring Dutch masters like Gert Dunbar, but just as stimulating was being immersed in a city that has celebrated typography and design since the 17th century. Dunbar boasted that Holland has the largest population of typographers per meter than any other place in the world. Although I cannot substantiate that claim, I saw evidence everywhere of their love of graphic design and typography: from the ultra classic script addresses painted on glossy black brick residences to signage for hallucinogenic mushroom parlors to street stencils marking the ubiquitous bike lanes. Even the public utility manhole covers, which are embossed with the Dutch flag's 400-year-old super graphic triple "x," serve to remind us that we are in the land of type.
 What makes the AGI Congress so unique, at least in the graphic design world, is that we get to walk, look at and absorb local design with other graphic designers. During a free afternoon, I got together with fellow designers Paula Scher and Seymour Chwast to go design hopping. First stop: Frozen Fountain – Dick Dankers and Cok de Rooy's design shop/gallery, which showcased the bounty of Dutch design talent.
 At Droog, we were directed to the garden gallery, where once again, that combination of conceptual intent and graphic typography revealed itself. The risers of the steps leading up to the gallery were covered in red paint with white type, each step indicating the amount of calories burned ascending the steps. Once inside, we were privy to the prototype for Marcel Wanders' Knotted Chair and various other explorations in woven materials and rigid surfaces.
 A very satisfying last visit was to the design bookstore of Nijhof & Lee. I was invited up to the rare book annex where I immersed myself in out-of-print design volumes. Not surprisingly, many of these books showcased my fellow AGI members (to see the full breadth of the exemplary work by AGI designers, pick up the just-published AGI: Graphic Design Since 1950.
I did end up buying a few books and wished I could have paid for them with the now-obsolete Dutch guilder, not the euro. This is not a whining commentary on the pathetic dollar-to-euro exchange rate, but rather a wistful homage to perhaps the most  beautiful series of banknotes ever created. And this is a case where Dutch form does follow function: the notes were virtually impossible to counterfeit due to their typographic and illustrative complexity and beauty.
It is sadly surprising that Holland is one of the few places where the government, the public sector and the private sector all understand, support and utilize design and designers. Many countries have great designers, but not many countries embrace, integrate and celebrate all aspects of design as thoughtfully or thoroughly as the Dutch.  Jennifer Morla View more images from Amsterdam > |
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| Tilt and Swivel (and Ship for Free) Through December 15, enjoy Free Standard Shipping on Cassina, Knoll® and Fritz Hansen. Learn more > |
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| Sound Design The Geneva Sound System brings sleek style to CDs, iPods and radio, without dropping a single note. Learn more > |
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| DWR at Design Miami 2007 DWR is celebrating Design Miami in many ways this year – we're a sponsor for the Design Talks; we'll provide furniture for the satellite exhibition, As Long as It Lasts, a pop-up tattoo parlor; and at our South Beach Studio we'll feature an exhibit of new paintings by artist Marcela C. Mumet. |
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| Las Vegas Opens Our newest Studio, which just opened in the Town Square Shopping Center in Las Vegas, is celebrating its opening with an evening of wine and design on December 13. A portion of sales at the Studio that week will benefit the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum. Learn more > |
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| Studio Events: The DWR Floor Sample Sale 11.23.07 – 12.15.07 Save up to 50% on floor samples during our nationwide Studio Sample Sale. Find a Studio nearby > Rock, Paper, Scissor Sisters 11.29.07 Location: Fillmore Join us for an evening with legendary rock 'n roll poster artist Dan Stiles and Readymade magazine. See all DWR Studio events > |
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100% Design Tokyo Buyer Kari Woldum attends 100% Design Tokyo and roams the city for Tools For Living finds. Read the post > Read more from the Design Notes blog > |
