[3 Piet Zwart artworks for a Bruynzeel Fineerfabriek blotter]

Before the ballpoint pen was popularized in the 1950s, people wrote with fountain pens or dip pens. Because fountain pen ink of that era could be slow to dry and highly prone to smudging, people who wrote things often kept small, loose sheets of highly absorbent, unsized paper close at hand. Whenever one finished writing a letter, filling out an invoice, or signing a check, one would gently press this small card over the wet ink to soak up the excess before folding the paper. Smart people realized this was an advertising opportunity. Some of those smart people were on staff at Bruynzeel Fineerfabriek, a Dutch manufacturer of doors and windows. They passed out zillions of these advertising blotters—and a ton were designed by Piet Zwart. (He also designed some of their catalogues and letterheads.) To make sure people kept them on their desks rather than throwing them away, Zwart’s designs often integrated a monthly calendar grid. Here are three original artworks for one of those blotters. We can see him working out ideas, texts, and processes in these. We see regular pencil work, colored pencil, collaged elements, resist, and painting. The first drawing shown above is the most complete, made at actual size, with some specs for type and color. The second work shows him working out processes. And the final is just a quick sketch that is not so interesting on its own—or even with the others, really, but they should stay together. Still an important set of documents that illustrate the processes of an important designer.