Piet Zwart was a Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 photographer

Photography

Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...

, typographer

Typography

Typography is the art and technique of arranging type in order to make language visible. The arrangement of type involves the selection of typefaces, point size, line length, leading , adjusting the spaces between groups of letters and adjusting the space between pairs of letters...

, and industrial design

Industrial design

Industrial design is the use of a combination of applied art and applied science to improve the aesthetics, ergonomics, and usability of a product, but it may also be used to improve the product's marketability and production...

er.

Examples of His Artwork

He started his career as an architect

Architect

An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

 and worked for Jan Wils

Jan Wils

Jan Wils was a Dutch architect.He was born in Alkmaar and died in Voorburg.Wils was one of the founding members of the De Stijl movement, which also included artists as Piet Mondrian, Theo van Doesburg and Gerrit Rietveld.Among others, Wils designed the Olympic stadium for the 1928 Summer Olympics...

 and Berlage

Hendrik Petrus Berlage

thumb|120px|left|BerlageHendrik Petrus Berlage, Amsterdam, 21 February 1856 — The Hague 12 August 1934, was a prominent Dutch architect.-Overview:...

.

As a designer, Zwart was well known because of his work for both the Nederlandse Kabelfabriek Delft (the Dutch Cable Factory in Delft

Delft

Delft is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland , the Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam and The Hague....

) and the Dutch Postal Telegraph and Telephone

Postal Telegraph and Telephone

A postal, telegraph, and telephone service is a government agency responsible for postal mail, telegraph, and telephone services. Such monopolies existed in many countries, though not in North America or Japan. Many PTTs have been partially or completely privatized in recent years...

, and as a pioneer of modern typography

Modern typography

Modern Typography was a reaction against the perceived decadence of typography and design of the late 19th century. It is mostly associated with the works of Jan Tschichold and Bauhaus typographers Herbert Bayer, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, El Lissitzky and others....

. He did not adhere to traditional typography rules, but used the basic principles of constructivism

Constructivism (art)

Constructivism was an artistic and architectural philosophy that originated in Russia beginning in 1919, which was a rejection of the idea of autonomous art. The movement was in favour of art as a practice for social purposes. Constructivism had a great effect on modern art movements of the 20th...

 and "De Stijl

De Stijl

De Stijl , propagating the group's theories. Next to van Doesburg, the group's principal members were the painters Piet Mondrian , Vilmos Huszár , and Bart van der Leck , and the architects Gerrit Rietveld , Robert van 't Hoff , and J.J.P. Oud...

" in his commercial work. His work can be recognized by its primary color

Primary color

Primary colors are sets of colors that can be combined to make a useful range of colors. For human applications, three primary colors are usually used, since human color vision is trichromatic....

s, geometrical shapes, repeated word patterns and an early use of photomontage

Photomontage

Photomontage is the process and result of making a composite photograph by cutting and joining a number of other photographs. The composite picture was sometimes photographed so that the final image is converted back into a seamless photographic print. A similar method, although one that does not...

.

He created a total of 275 designs in 10 years for the NKF Company, almost all typographical works. He resigned in 1933 to become an interior, industrial and furniture designer.

Piet Zwart died at the age of 92 in 1977. The Piet Zwart Institute

Piet Zwart Institute

The Piet Zwart Institute is a post-graduate institute for study and research in art, media and design based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Named in memory of the Dutch designer Piet Zwart, it was inaugurated in 2001...

 of the Willem de Kooning Academy

Willem de Kooning Academy

The Willem de Kooning Academy is a Dutch Academy of art and design based in Rotterdam and named in memory of the famous Dutch artist Willem de Kooning.- Overview :...

Rotterdam - the same art school of which he was a professor in the 1920s - is named after him.