Stedelijk Museum | Willem Sandberg

Sandberg, Director and Designer
Stedelijk website

Willem Sandberg (1897-1984) was director of the Stedelijk Museum between 1945-63. Whilst he championed new artists and developed one of the most important collections of modern art in Europe, he also designed almost all of the posters, catalogs and graphic material for the museum - an unusual activity for a museum director.

Sandberg's graphic design reflected his vision and defined the look of the museum. With a focus on experimenting with type as image, his style was marked by simplicity, bright colours, torn paper shapes and the re-use of images in multiple contexts.

With the belief that art should be integrated into daily life, Sandberg introduced an education program and modernised the museum by transforming it into an inviting environment with a library, reading room, a restaurant and an auditorium with a film and music program. Sandberg constantly aimed to lower the threshold of the museum to make it more appealing and easy to access for everybody.

These posters demonstrate Sandberg's playful use of type and how type becomes an image. For 'Het dagblad door de eeuwen' (The newspaper through the centuries) a newspaper spread is overlaid with simple contrasting types.

The five golden rules adopted by Sandberg were:

1) a poster has to be joyous, unless it has to arouse compassion
2) red has to be in every poster
3) a poster has to provoke a closer look, otherwise it doesn't endure
4) with a respect for society, designer and director both are responsible for the street scene. A poster does not only have to revive the street, it also has to be human
5) every poster has to be an artwork

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Sandberg's design work is simple, playful, and I believe it still has impact and charm today. I think it's admirable how Sandberg was aware of his responsibility not only as a museum director, but as a creative himself - bringing the wider public, if not society as a whole, into the equation.

The concept of integrating art and design into everyday life, and maybe even using it to make life better and more interesting is a very positive outlook that makes me think "yeah, that's a pretty good idea!". I find it affirming, because it suggests that art and design isn't just this howling void of stuff, or at least it doesn't have to be.