About loners, collectives and agencies: The company forms adopted by Dutch designers through the years.

How do designers actually organise themselves? Do they generally work alone, or do they form an agency together? And how has the type of company developed since the ‘50s? Researcher Marinda Verhoeven uncovered surprising results after diving into the Dutch Design Database.

In the last sixty years, the number of graphic designers in the Netherlands has grown from less than 100 to more than 5,000. The company structure within which current designers earn their living ranges from self-employed loners to companies such as Total Identity with 120 employees. The daily practice varies from pure typographic design to complete shop interiors and industrial design. At this moment, there are around 180 Dutch graphic design agencies with five or more employees. The collected data in the Dutch Design Database give an indication of how this growth came about. By looking at which designers and agencies started their work at which moment, it is possible to sketch a development in the way in which designers practise their profession.

The ‘50s and ‘60s: Independent and the start of large
In the ‘fifties, professional designers practised independently. Some had an assistant to help them with the execution, but the client engaged a designer directly and personally. This changed with the arrival of Tel Design in 1962 and Total Design in 1963. Following examples from abroad and from the world of advertising, a number of designers started their own company together. They wanted to work from one vision and do everything together under one roof. The client could now go to one company and discuss and organise all his design requirements with one contact person. Agencies such as Dedato, BRS, Smidswater and Studio Bauwinkel soon followed this example in subsequent years. 

The

‘70s: Like minds
The data in the database suggest that in the course of the ‘seventies the desire to set up a one-man professional practice declined, and a new form arose at the end of the decade: Small groups of self-employed designers with a common vision on society and design joined together in loose collaborations.
Hard Werken and Wild Plakken are the best-known examples of this.

The ‘80s: Large and small
The ‘eighties show a considerable growth in both start-up agencies and self-employed professional practices, although the preference seems to be for an agency. The companies that were founded at the start of the decade differed considerably both in size and ambition. By no means every start-up agency had the ambition to become a large, coordinated agency. The result was a landscape of large and small agencies, from which the client could make a choice based on the demands of each assignment. If the client was interested in signposting, he would be more likely to choose an agency such as Mijksenaar than anthonBeeke, which was more specialised in cultural clients.

The ‘90s: an explosion in design agencies
This trend continued into the first half of the ‘nineties. From the middle of the decade, however, there was an explosion in the number of agencies, small companies and collaborations founded. The profession also become highly diverse. Some agencies specialised in a specific discipline such as packaging design or online communication. Designers who shared the same vision on design started to work together under the same name: 75B, Experimental Jetset and Designpolitie are just a few examples of small collaborations with a strongly recognisable handwriting. Agencies were also started on the cusp of the divide with advertising, such as KesselsKramer. Mergers resulted in several very large agencies; Eden Design is one example.

2000: back to small
At the start of the 21st century, the urge to start large agencies seems to have abated somewhat. In addition to the emergence of small studios there is also an increasing number of designers who start a practice on their own. When collecting the basic data for the Dutch Design Database, it emerged that fewer agencies were registering with a professional association than in the ‘eighties and ‘nineties.

For clients, there is a lot of choice. Large agencies that have been around for decades, such as Tel Design, Total Identity and Studio Dumbar, still belong to the possibilities. In addition there is considerable choice in small, flexible agencies, studios and collaborations. Many of these differentiate themselves through their strong, unique visual character or through a specialism in a certain discipline. But a client can still, just as back in the ‘fifties, choose a self-employed designer with his own artistic qualities and personal contact.

The Dutch Design Database only registers data. The development sketched above is a brief summary of how the professional graphic design industry seems to have developed in the last sixty years. Further research must interpret these data more thoroughly and, with additional research, place them in a context. The professional development of this sector can be placed and explained in a broader perspective based on economic, sociological and cultural developments.

Marinda Verhoeven, 1 juli 2009

More information
[Online]
Dutch Design Database Exhibition in the Graphic Design Museum
List of members of the Bond Nederlandse Ontwerpers [Dutch Designers Association]
ReclameArsenaal
Nederlandse Archief Grafisch Ontwerpers. Currently administers the archives of Total Design, Tel Design, Wild Plakken and Hard Werken, and places these at the disposal of researchers.
Interview with Rick Vermeulen about the end of “Hard Werken” in Eye Magazine

[Books]
Campos, C., Grafisch design in Nederland, Librero, 2009
Broos, K., P. Hefting, Grafische vormgeving in Nederland. Een eeuw, Amsterdam, V+K Publishing. 1995
Meggs, P., W. Purvis, Meggs’ history of graphic design, Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2006
Betsky, A., A. Eeuwens, False flat. Why Dutch design is so good, Phaidon Press Ltd, 2008