Linda Verbruggen

This is the work of Linda Verbruggen whose work I first saw at the New Blood exhibition in London. I really liked the typographic work she produced so in August, I contacted Linda regarding her work and influences.

LEANNE: I recently saw some of your work exhibited at the New Blood Exhibition in London and I particularly liked your "Surname Posters".
As I am about to start a project called "Illustrated Alphabet", I was hoping you could please tell me the ideas and processes behind the surname posters.

LINDA VERBRUGGEN: Thanks for the compliment!
The posters were for ISTD, a brief called 'Doing my nut in'. It was about diffirent languages and dialects.
Because I'm form the Netherlands I wanted to do something with the Dutch language. My research went way back to the beginning of language and especially the Dutch language. I also researched the Dutch history what made me come to the beginning of the use of surnames in the Netherlands. I knew I wanted to do something with that because we have some funny ones in the Netherlands. Then I started looking at all the typography that inspired me, just by looking in books and on the internet. I found some really cool 'woodcut' posters from the 19th century. Those were my inspiration for my own posters because surnames where required in the Netherlands in the 19th century. I looked for every woodcut poster I could find and tried to use them for my own designs. I looked at the fonts, sizes the layout everything. It was a very long proces to get mine like the posters I had for inspiration. There isn't much more to it.. Just keep trying to copy them and blend it with your own style.
I hope this helps.. if you have more questions feel free to ask!
good luck with it!

For more information, visit her website: www.linda-verbruggen.com