Gijs Bakker
Gijs Bakker, born in Amersfoort, the Netherlands, in 1942, was trained as a jewelry and industrial designer at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam and at the Konstfack Skolen in Stockholm.
Bakker's designs cover jewelry, home accessories and household appliances, furniture, interiors, public spaces, and exhibitions. He has worked for numerous companies, including Polaroid, Artifort, Droog Design, Castelijn, HEMA, Royal VKB, ENO Studio, and recently as creative director for Yii, Taiwan.
Together with design critic and historian Renny Ramakers, Bakker founded Droog Design in Amsterdam in 1993, a Dutch “brand” of products created by an array of international designers. With Ramakers, he was the selector and art director of all products for Droog Design until 2009.
Bakker has also taught design at various schools—among them, Delft University of Technology—for more than 40 years. After teaching at the Design Academy Eindhoven (DAE) for more than 15 years, in 2010 he was appointed Head of the Masters Program of the DAE.
Bakker established the Chi ha paura...? (Italian for “Who’s afraid of…?”) Foundation in 1996 together with Marijke Vallanzasca. The goal of Chi ha paura...? (CHP) was to open the international design world to the possibilities for jewelry as more than a decorative fashion accessory and to challenge mainstream resistance to these ideas in contemporary jewelry.
In his current design projects Bakker investigates the relation between craft and design. Since 2009, he has also explored this theme in his role as creative director for HAN Gallery, formerly known as Yii.
Gijs Bakker travels around the world to present workshops and lectures about his own work, Droog Design, CHP, and Yii (HAN Gallery) and is frequently a member of juries.
Bakker’s work is represented widely in international public and private collections worldwide, including The Art Institute of Chicago; Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Arts and Design, New York; The Philadelphia Museum of Art; Museum of FIne Arts, Houston; Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; Royal College of Art, London; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Designmuseo, Helsinki; Die Neue Sammlung, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam; Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, The Hague; Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris; Museo degli Argenti (the Medici Treasury), Pitti Palace, Florence; National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto; Hiko Mizuno College of Jewelry, Tokyo; Israel Museum, Jerusalem; and Powerhouse Museum, Sydney.
The recipient of many accolades, among them the 2011 Sanoma Lifetime Achievement Award (Amsterdam), Gijs Bakker was most recently honored in 2012 as “Best International Jewelry Designer,” by the Andrea Palladio International Jewelry Awards.
Announcements
Louis Kahn: Architecture as Philosophy by John Lobell
Louis Kahn: Architecture as Philosophy
By John Lobell
Publisher: The Monacelli Press
Published: June 2020
Noted Louis I.Kahn expert John Lobell explores how Kahn’s focus on structure, respect for materials, clarity of program, and reverence for details come together to manifest an overall philosophy.
Our Days Are Like Full Years: A Memoir with Letters from Louis Kahn by Harriet Pattison
Our Days Are Like Full Years: A Memoir with Letters from Louis Kahn
By Harriet Pattison
Publisher: Yale University Press
Forthcoming: October 2020
An intimate glimpse into the professional and romantic relationship between Harriet Pattison and the renowned architect Louis Kahn. Harriet Pattison, FASLA, is a distinguished landscape architect. She was Louis Kahn’s romantic partner from 1959 to 1974, and his collaborator on the landscapes of the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, and the F.D.R. Memorial/Four Freedoms Park, New York. She is the mother of their son, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Nathaniel Kahn.
Louis I. Kahn: The Nordic Latitudes
Louis I. Kahn: The Nordic Latitudes
By Per Olaf Fjeld and Emily Randall Fjeld
Publisher: University of Arkansas Press
Published: October 4, 2019
A new and personal reading of the architecture, teachings, and legacy of Louis I. Kahn from Per Olaf Fjeld’s perspective as a former student. The book explores Kahn’s life and work, offering a unique take on one of the twentieth century’s most important architects. Kahn’s Nordic and European ties are emphasized in this study that also covers his early childhood in Estonia, his travels, and his relationships with other architects, including the Norwegian architect Arne Korsmo.
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Reading Graphic Design History: Image, Text, and Context by David Raizman
Reading Graphic Design History: Image, Text, and Context
By David Raizman
Publisher: Bloomsbury Visual Arts
Published: December 2020
An innovative approach to graphic design that uses a series of key artifacts from the history of print culture in light of their specific historical contexts. It encourages the reader to look carefully and critically at print advertising, illustration, posters, magazine art direction, and typography, often addressing issues of class, race, and gender.
David King: Designer, Activist, Visual Historian by Rick Poynor
David King: Designer, Activist, Visual Historian
By Rick Poynor
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: September 2020
A comprehensive overview of the work and legacy of David King (1943–2016), whose fascinating career bridged journalism, graphic design, photography, and collecting. King launched his career at Britain’s Sunday Times Magazine in the 1960s, starting as a designer and later branching out into image-led journalism, blending political activism with his design work.
Teaching Graphic Design History by Steven Heller
Teaching Graphic Design History
By Steven Heller
Publisher: Allworth Press
Published: June 2019
An examination of the concerted efforts, happy accidents, and key influences of the practice throughout the years, Teaching Graphic Design History is an illuminating resource for students, practitioners, and future teachers of the subject.
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