Press Room
Letterform Archive Introduces New Publication, NKF: Piet Zwart’s Avant-Garde Catalog for Standard Cables, 1927-1928
Media Contact
Katie Peeler, [email protected], +1.415.223.2823
SAN FRANCISCO, California, January 14, 2025 — NKF: Piet Zwart’s Avant-Garde Catalog for Standard Cables, 1927–1928 is available now from Letterform Archive Books. The two-volume set designed by Karen Polder includes the facsimile catalog and the companion supplement and is an essential addition for design enthusiasts, historians, and anyone passionate about the intersection of art and industry.
Piet Zwart (1885–1977) is widely regarded as the most important Dutch designer of the last century and is credited with helping rewrite the rules of modern typography. NKF, his best known work, is an 80-page catalog for the electrical cable manufacturer Nederlandse Kabelfabriek Delft (NKF) that revolutionized typography and design. This remarkable case study in visual communication combines razor-sharp photos, playful type compositions, expressive montages, and bold fields of color to transform the humble cable into a subject for experimental graphic design.
Received in avant-garde circles as a model of modernist New Typography, the catalog is sought after today as a touchstone of art and design history. This first-ever facsimile of Zwart’s NKF catalog from Letterform Archive Books reproduces the complete book, preserving every detail in its original format. An accompanying critical supplement includes essays by design scholars Philip B. Meggs and Paul Stirton, a rich selection of rarely seen projects from Zwart’s decade-long relationship with NKF, and a translation of Zwart’s original manifesto on type and design.
“Letterform Archive’s edition of Piet Zwart’s legendary NKF catalog is both a labor of love and an extraordinary feat of historical reclamation,” writes designer Michael Bierut. “This thrillingly faithful facsimile puts before us a complete artifact of graphic design, nearly 100 years old, that most of us have seen only in fleeting and frustratingly partial reproductions. And by supplementing it not only with generous commentary but with a full translation of its contents, the publishers restore its original context, adding depth and meaning to a seminal achievement in graphic design.”
2 paperback volumes with slipcase $60 | 8¼ × 11½ inches | 120 pages | ISBN: 979-89891423-1-6
About Letterform Archive
Founded in 2015, Letterform Archive is a non-profit center for preserving and sharing the history of the graphic arts. Letterform Archive Books produces exquisite titles based on its collection of more than 100,000 artifacts, as well as bold new books on design, type, and lettering. Distributed worldwide by D.A.P. (Distributed Arts Publishers), the Archive’s publications include Strikethrough: Typographic Messages of Protest, Bauhaus Typography at 100, Die Fläche: Design and Lettering of the Vienna Secession, 1902–1911, The Complete Commercial Artist: Making Modern Design in Japan, 1928–1930, Growing Up in Alphabet City: The Unexpected Letterform Art of Michael Doret, and Citizen Printer: Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. Learn more at letterformarchive.org/publishing.