On the eve of the opening of the De Best Verzorgde Boeken exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam it was announced that Joost Grootens is the first laureate of the new prize The Capital. The Best Dutch Book Designs asked Team Thursday to come up with a form for this prize.

Team Thursday (Loes van Esch and Simone Trum) chose a sculpture. The designer duo drew inspiration from very early printing techniques such as the brick stamp from Iraq (2200 B.C.), the first Chinese printing technique in which individual letters made of porcelain were placed in a printing form (ca. 1000 A.D.) as well as the Western technique of using lead letters (15th century).

Team Thursday enlisted the help of an amazing ceramist, Marieke van Heesbeen. She created 5 porcelain “capitals,” each with a different color glaze.

Photo: © Titia Hahne