Cinema & graphic design
My department of Comparative Arts Studies combines education and research in various arts and medias, among which film and graphic design. In 2004, I started the first Dutch universitary course on the history of the film poster; it even hit the national broadcasting news. The course is mainly cultural historical, but also treats analytical and theoretical aspects. The film poster course intertwines film history, history of graphic design and semiotics of word & image. While the course gives a broad international panorama, with a focus on Europe and the US, the students’ research connected to it is directed towards the Dutch film poster and its international context. In 2004 the accent was on the postwar Dutch film poster. Guest lectures by Paul van Yperen (Premsela Foundation & film poster expert), Paul Verstraeten (marketing expert) and Gijs Kuijper (film poster designer) enriched the course. The course was coproduced by the Vrije Universiteit, Premsela Foundation and Filmmuseum.
The course resulted into the attractive and well-reviewed exhibition Blikvangers – 60 jaar filmaffiches in Nederland [Eyecatchers – 60 years of film posters in the Netherlands], which was shown at the Exposorium of the Vrije Universiteit (March-April 2005). Two other side effects were a publication on the posters of the collective Hard Werken for the Rotterdam Film Festival and a combined review of film poster books; both appeared in the film journal Skrien. The course is now a fixed part of our curriculum. The lectures of the course are open to extranei such as designers and archivists, who can follow the course for a flat fee. Language of the course is Dutch.An excursion to the Filmmuseum poster archive is included.
Our target in the coming years is to publish an English-written, academic publication on the history, theory and analysis of the film poster. It will be based on the large holdings of the Netherlands Filmmuseum and will also include one chapter on the collecting, preservation and presentation of the poster archive of the Filmmuseum. The publication will be preceded by a symposium on the topic of the book.
Our target in the coming years is to publish an English-written, academic publication on the history, theory and analysis of the film poster. It will be based on the large holdings of the Netherlands Filmmuseum and will also include one chapter on the collecting, preservation and presentation of the poster archive of the Filmmuseum. The publication will be preceded by a symposium on the topic of the book.