A typography project exploring the traditional calligraphy found throughout the city of Amsterdam. I found the specific calligraphic style to be known as ‘Krulletter’ – A traditional form of hand painted calligraphy used predominantly for signage on pubs and brewery’s in Amsterdam. I created a handmade book to document my photographic findings of Krulletter throughout the wonderful city of Amsterdam.
2017
A typography project exploring the traditional calligraphy found throughout the city of Amsterdam. I found the specific calligraphic style to be known as ‘Krulletter’ – A traditional form of hand painted calligraphy used predominantly for signage on pubs and brewery’s in Amsterdam. I created a handmade book to document my photographic findings of Krulletter throughout the wonderful city of Amsterdam.
2017
The book is a 52 page coptic stitch bound book including photography of shop fronts, pubs and houses in Amsterdam that display the wonderful Krulletter typography.
The title is written in Dutch and translates to “The typographic shops and houses of Amsterdam”. The cover is a white ink screen print onto a light grey traditional book cloth.
Krulletter was created by the sign painter Jan Willem Visser who from the early 50s to 1968 worked for the Amstel Brewery (now known as Heineken). The highly skilled calligraphic typography was hand painted as use for signage in Amsterdam pubs and brewery’s.
In 2012, An Argentinian type designer named Ramiro Espinoza designed a type face to carry on the beautiful script style of Krulletter. Espinoza created the typeface with the idea in that the typeface would work to the typographic needs of today. This typeface known as ‘Krul’ has been used in the design of this book to best summarise Amsterdam’s Krulletter typography.
The Krulletter typography still lives on and can be found on a vast array of shop windows and houses all over the city. More modern interpretations of the style have been created through the use of digital typefaces displayed on windows using printed vinyl. The more traditional hand painted methods can be seen primarily on traditional Amsterdam pubs, also known as ‘Brown Cafes’. These brown cafes can be found throughout the Jordaan and Depijp districts.
