Represent Koninklijke Tichelaar Makkum

Book coverRepresent Koninklijke Tichelaar Makkum
Book coverRepresent Koninklijke Tichelaar Makkum
Book coverRepresent Koninklijke Tichelaar Makkum
Book coverRepresent Koninklijke Tichelaar Makkum

Koninklijke Tichelaar Makkum is a centuries-old firm that is seeing a steady decline in its sales of traditional earthenware. Over the past fifteen years the business has been rowing against the current by looking for links with designers and architects, and it is principally that recent history that is described in this book.

The building blocks of which it is constructed are in every respect its pages, a fairly consistent succession of a full page of text followed by a full-page image. Reading the picture captions is actively discouraged by placing them vertically in the inner margin in type that can hardly be any larger than 5pt. The placing of text and image to left and right alternates with each essay. The images connect past and present, the factory in Makkum with building facings installed as far afield as New York and Singapore. Ceramic tradition and innovation decorate the edges of the book block.

The panel spent some time wondering why the texts, despite their substantiality, seemed unable to lure them into reading them. Was it because bookworms, in spite of all the newspapers and magazines they may read, always expect the pages of their books to have margins? Even if the book does break down into a large number of short contributions that are usually not all read at a single sitting? Be that as it may, as an object and as a book to dip into this is a nice piece of work, a clear composition with a beginning, a middle and an end.

Edition: 2010
Language: English / Dutch
Final editor: Marietta de Vries
Publisher: 010 Publishers, Rotterdam
Graphic designer: Irma Boom in collaboration with Julia Neller
Lithographer: die Keure, Bruges (B)
Printer: die Keure, Bruges (B)
Binder: Van Waarden, Zaandam
Size book block (w x h x d in mm): 170 x 240 x 32
Number of pages: 320 p.
Print run: 3,000
Price: € 34.50
ISBN: 978 90 6450 708 3 (E) / 978 90 6450 707 6 (D)
Font and foundry: Plantin
Binding style: sewn hardback
Material: 120gsm Munken polar rough (interior), 145gsm Butterfly, black (endpapers), 145gsm Wibalin, white (binding)