Karel Martens

My buddy Tobi recently introduced me to Graphic Designer and Professor Karel Martens. The Dutch artist has been studying and producing graphic designs since the 50’s, even before it was it’s own course of study, and received various accolades over the years for his works and teachings. It’s not hard to see his influence on contemporary design through his use of overprinted color and texture in these transient works. It kinda sounds like I’m writing an essay on the dude right now, but at least now ya know.. “The below selection of Martens’ monoprints includes rare works from the 1950s and 60s. They engage with the technology of letterpress, deliberately misusing the media to create unique prints. Neither commissioned design objects nor autonomous artworks, Martens’ letterpress experiments exist as unique fragments of an ongoing visual process.” I dig.

–Karel Martens: Selected Letterpress Works

“I think it’s important that like a good wine, a design has a lingering flavour”.

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