Page 4 - Magazine Karel Martens

Profile

Martens was born in Mook en Middelaar
in 1939 and graduated from the Arnhem
Academy of Art and Industrial Arts of the
Netherlands in 1961 where he studied
fine arts. He did not study graphic design
because it was not considered a career
at the time and therefore, did not exist as
its own course of study. In school he took
many classes such as painting, sculpture
making, illustration, and publicity. Today he
is recognized as one of the most influential
practitioners in graphic design.
He started teaching at ArtEZ in Arnhem
in 1977. In 1998 he, along with Wigger His method Text: Wikepedia Photo: Pinterest
Bierma, founded the Werkplaats Typografie, He had always been fascinated with language,
a renowned Masters course for typography mathematics and color and he finds a way to
in Arnhem, Netherlands. Martens’s practice incorporate all these interests into his designs.
consists of designing and teaching. He is His monoprints series was created using found
responsible for the design of architectural metal objects and other miscellaneous objects
magazine OASE, in collaboration with collected form the side of the road. He uses these
current and former students. And he has objects to print ink on found paper. His methods
designed books for publisher SUN in many are slow but very precise—he prints one colour
varying formats. His work has also included per day, waits for it to dry, and prints the second
designing coins, postage stamps and colour the next day. By this method, Martens’
telephone cards for the Dutch government. prints may take days or weeks to be completed.