A graphic print featuring a chaotic arrangement of red, overlapping letters on a white background. The characters are rendered in a thin, monolinear style, creating a tangled web of typography.

Lighthearted typography and books from design student Tomas Laar

Words: Liv Siddall
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Date: 24 April 2015; Work
Graphic Design

Nice body of work here from Dutch design student Tomas Laar, who has a pleasing understanding of typography and the fun there is to be had in publication design. Even though he’s still studying he’s been very busy immersing himself in the design world, taking part in Hort’s raucous After School Club and a number of different group shows and workshops. What I like about his work is that he’s not afraid to mess around a bit, and the more professional journals he’s put together and professionally bound are contrasted by mini-projects that see him making posters in homage to designers he admires and pasting them up on walls around The Hague. Even his typography is light-hearted, and shows how unafraid he is to get stuck in with different materials and processes in order to get the best result. He’s also got an absolute ripper of a blog.

A spiral-bound notebook lies open on a dark grey surface. A white page features the text “Thoughts on design — as the starting point for this project.” — Above
Tomas Laar: Stories from the unified whole

An open spiral-bound notebook with a grey cover and orange endpapers. The pages contain blocks of justified black text on a white background. — Above
Tomas Laar: Stories from the unified whole

A white card features the phrase “Types met karakter” repeated four times in purple. Each line uses a different typographic style, ranging from a refined serif to a bold, chunky font. Vertical text along the left edge reads “Letterontwerp als vorm van visuele expressie”. — Above
Tomas Laar: Types met karakter – Thesis

An open book with Dutch text on two white pages. The left page features a large, bold block of text, while the right page contains smaller, denser columns of copy. — Above
Tomas Laar: Types met karakter – Thesis

Above

Tomas Laar: Types met karakter – Thesis

An orange spiral-bound notebook against a black background. Vertical text on the right reads “ABC / Typography”, while smaller text on the left lists “Topics” and several names. — Above
Tomas Laar: Typographic reader

An open book with yellow pages. The left page features a block of text and a grainy black and white photograph of a person wearing a hat and glasses. The right page contains more text and a row of lowercase serif letters in red. — Above
Tomas Laar: Typographic reader

A typographic print featuring red, interlocking letters on a white background. The characters overlap in a complex, circular arrangement to form an abstract pattern. — Above
Tomas Laar: Graduation name poster

White typographic lettering is layered and intertwined across a black background. The letters form a complex, abstract arrangement of words and characters, including a small superscript “2”. — Above
Tomas Laar: Graduation name poster

An orange poster featuring white, interlocking typographic lettering. The letters are stylised and overlapping, forming a complex, abstract arrangement of words. — Above
Tomas Laar: Graduation name poster

A page from a design workbook featuring a hand-drawn, abstract letter “V” in thick black ink. The letter is composed of three separate strokes set against a pale yellow grid. At the top, blue text reads “DIAGRAM” and “25/26”. Small blue text at the bottom reads “Use 2 or 3 stencil shapes to create letter” and “Capitals”. — Above
Tomas Laar: TL #001 – Typeface

A collection of typography studies pinned to a wall. A sheet shows a lowercase alphabet and numbers, while below, two larger letters, “F” and “U”, are drawn on grid paper. — Above
Tomas Laar: TL #001 – Typeface

A white card held by a silver clip against a black background. Blue text reads “Following Sol Le Witt’s conceptual wall drawings, this project was created,” explaining a system for designing letters using stencil shapes. — Above
Tomas Laar: TL #001 – Typeface

A close-up of a dark grey surface with precise, curved cut-outs. The smooth, reflective edges of the shapes create a geometric pattern across the material. — Above
Tomas Laar: TL #001 – Typeface

An illustration of a 3D capital letter “E” in black and white. The letter is rendered with a grainy, stippled texture on its sides and depth. — Above
Tomas Laar: Reeeeeeeks

Further Info

www.tomaslaar.com

About the Author

Liv Siddall

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Liv joined It’s Nice That as an intern in 2011 and worked across online, print and events, and was latterly Features Editor before leaving in May 2015.

Lighthearted typography and books from design student Tomas Laar

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