Uploaded April 2018 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
In May 2004 Dutch graphic designer and printmaker Harmen Liemburg was invited to do a workshop at CalArts. Visiting him there and seeing the work he did with students made me wonder if the CalArts surroundings felt much more like a natural habitat to him and his work compared to the wet, cold flatness of the Netherlands. The illustrative approach in his work seems odd in an environment that mostly produces clean, simple and very straightforward design, his work is distinctive for its shameless display of obsession with form (rather then the naked concept), and the joy and fun seeping through structured layers of ink. Heavily inspired by the vernacular (Liemburg re-uses shapes and forms found on old candy wrappers and other packaging), Japanese illustrations, Seventies patterns, the look of early computer games and an excessive interest in printed matter (use of silk screen technique), his is work rich, filled with ?old fashioned? craftsmanship that mixes time and history.
(intro interview Beautiful Decay magazine - whl)
Recorded Oct 18, 2007
In May 2004 Dutch graphic designer and printmaker Harmen Liemburg was invited to do a workshop at CalArts. Visiting him there and seeing the work he did with students made me wonder if the CalArts surroundings felt much more like a natural habitat to him and his work compared to the wet, cold flatness of the Netherlands. The illustrative approach in his work seems odd in an environment that mostly produces clean, simple and very straightforward design, his work is distinctive for its shameless display of obsession with form (rather then the naked concept), and the joy and fun seeping through structured layers of ink. Heavily inspired by the vernacular (Liemburg re-uses shapes and forms found on old candy wrappers and other packaging), Japanese illustrations, Seventies patterns, the look of early computer games and an excessive interest in printed matter (use of silk screen technique), his is work rich, filled with ?old fashioned? craftsmanship that mixes time and history.
(intro interview Beautiful Decay magazine - whl)
Recorded Oct 18, 2007
