Richard Niessen — Amsterdam, The Netherlands

“I am fond of typographic posters. The physical aspect is important – the paper, the inks (such as gold and silver, or the day-glo inks), and I like to see them as objects: I like to see them hang on a wall, but I get an even bigger thrill out of playing with them, stacking them up, cutting them out, twisting them around like a roadmap or a board game. They are my favourite means of expression.”

Richard Niessen (Edam-Volendam, 1972) graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in 1996. Ever since then he has been embarked on a body of work that he calls “Typographic Masonry”. It is the “almost hermetic craft” of forging amalgams of signs, symbols and ornaments in mostly non-linear structures. This syncretic approach to graphic design, with a predilection for printwork, creates a coherent, formal language exclusively for the project at hand.