The Boring Issue Interview
For #6 – The Boring Issue, O.K. Periodicals asked me about the 2008 project in the Smith-Lesouëf library (France).
Over papier
Over papier (About paper)
Interview through email by Esther Krop
Written (in Dutch) for De Monsterkamer, a blog about paper for designers and paperlovers.
Interview in DPI Magazine
Interview in Design Popular Imagination = DPI Magazine (Taiwan), Spring 2011
Interview in AIAPZINE
Interview through email in the web-zine of Associazone Italiana Progettazione per la Comunicazione Visiva (AIAP), February 2011.
Graphic Design Worlds in Wallpaper
Malaika Byng reporting from Milan for Wallpaper (article and slideshow), January 31, 2011
Interview in Graphic Design Worlds/ Words
Interview with Maddalena Dalla Mura
Published in Graphic Design Worlds/Words
Graphic Design Worlds – Backstage
Valentina Ciuffi looking around at the Triennale di Milano, where everybody’s getting ready for the opening of Graphic Design Worlds…
CV
Harmen Liemburg
July 1, 1966
Lisse, the Netherlands
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EDUCATION
Gerrit Rietveld Academie Amsterdam,
Graphic Design department, graduation (BA) 1998
Internship Oven Digital, Inc.,
New York, NY autumn 1997
Exchange program,
Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), Richmond VA, spring 1997
University of Utrecht,
Social Geography/Cartography, graduation (MA) 1992
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Bio
Cloud Gate aka 'The Bean' by Anish Kapoor, Millennium Park, Chicago
English
Harmen Liemburg (NL 1966) started his career as a cartographer. To keep his appetite for graphic representation alive, he sought a larger menu of expression. He went to the Gerrit Rietveld academy and became a member of a new breed of designers, one that is closely linked to the world of art, education and museums.
Liemburg is obsessed with screen printing, and uses the medium to create unexpected results. His style emphasizes the narrative aspect of images and the occasional beauty of everyday vernacular like logos and packaging design, that are woven together through collage techniques.
His projects are primarily linked to the transformation of exhibition spaces through the use of printed matter. In his lectures and workshops he works to convince students to start working by turning off their computers, but simultaneously shows how to digital tools can be linked to analogue printing processes. Besides being a graphic designer and graphic artist, he’s also a design journalist, mainly for the Dutch magazine Items.
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Nederlands
Harmen Liemburg (NL 1966) begon zijn carrière als kartograaf. Op zoek naar een manier om zijn grafische uitdrukkingsmogelijkheden te vergroten, ging hij naar de Gerrit Rietveld Academie. Daar werd hij onderdeel van een nieuwe generatie ontwerpers, één die nauw verbonden is met de wereld van beeldende kunst, musea en onderwijs.
Liemburg is geobsedeerd door zeefdruk, en gebruikt het medium om onverwachte resultaten te bereiken. In zijn werk benadrukt hij het verhalende aspect en de plotselinge schoonheid van alledaagse beelden zoals logos en verpakkingen, die door middel van collagetechnieken met elkaar worden verweven.
Zijn projecten richten zich vooral op de produktie van drukwerk, dat hij onder andere gebruikt om tentoonstellingsruimten te transformeren. In zijn lezingen en workshops probeert hij studenten ervan te overtuigen te beginnen met het uitschakelen van hun computers, maar laat tegelijkertijd zien hoe digitaal gereedschap kan aansluiten op analoge drukprocessen. Liemburg is naast grafisch ontwerper en kunstenaar ook design journalist, met name voor het Nederlandse tijdschrift Items.
Profile
Hello, my name is Harmen Liemburg.
I’m a graphic designer, screenprinter, educator and design journalist based in Amsterdam.
Usually regarded as one of the applied disciplines, I like to see graphic design as a vehicle for imagination, storytelling and self-expression, regardless if it’s a job or a self-initiated project.
Much of my graphic output is based on collage-technique, and inspiration often comes from elements that already exist in the world.
In addition to a strong interest in graphic techniques, I have a special fondness of the so called vernacular. I see beauty in everyday traffic signs, logos and packaging designs that most people just take for granted or maybe don’t even notice at all.
The visual buildingblocks that I’m constantly collecting, are typically redrawn and adjusted for screenprint. The separate elements are given a new role and meaning by combining them with others. Together, they tell a new story.
Over the past ten years, my role has shifted from being the proverbial ‘problem solving’ designer, to somebody who’s mostly following his own agenda.
Sharing knowledge and experience, educating, and possibly entertaining and inspiring others, has become my major business. Contrary to what many people simply assume, I still enjoy working for clients as well!
And finally, when the work is done, you can usually find me somewhere outside on a bike, in a kayak, or camping…