100 Years of Dutch Graphic DesignPermanent exhibition
The core of our museum is formed by the semi-permanent exhibition 100 years of Graphic Design in the Netherlands. There are three rooms, together covering more than six hundred square metres, in which the visitor is led past famous and not-so-famous highlights of a century of graphic design. A unique historical retrospective that clearly shows how Dutch graphic design is inextricably linked with the modernisation of society in the twentieth century.
Social developments
The central theme is at which points the developments of the professional and social developments interact. We consider graphic design as a typical phenomenon of the twentieth century. As the Netherlands modernised, the new communications industry spreads a broad scala of visual styles.
Vital to the image
The visitor sees how graphic designs have successively determined the image of various areas of public life. Between the two world wars, it was individuals who set the tone. In the second half of the twentieth century, the professional underwent an enormous scale enlargement. There is a considerable diversity of visual styles. In addition, designers became increasingly involved in the daily life of the public. The exhibition concludes with a small selection of designs from the last twenty-five years. They represent the diversity of current design practice.
Interaction
The exhibition reacts to the presence and the route chosen by the visitors. The interactivity increases the farther one gets. The visitor experiences how interaction in communication became increasingly important in the course of the twentieth century. Designers and clients have acquired greater insight into the way in which the public reads and understands visual communication. Technology has come to play an increasing role in communication and image culture.
Hidden treasures
The objects in 100 Years of Dutch Graphic Design are partly replaced every three months. Furthermore, a large part of the exhibited objects are from collections that are seldom or never displayed. With this dynamic approach to the permanent exhibition, the Graphic Design Museum realises its aims to present hidden treasures from the Dutch Collection to a broad public.
In addition to a constantly changing list of people who loan work for this exhibition, the museum also works regularly with the ReclameArsenaal, the Dutch Archive of Graphic Designers (NAGO), the Meermanno Museum in The Hague and the Money Museum in Utrecht.
