IGI features
BNO (Association of Dutch Designers) Interview
Apr, 30, 2002
In April 2002, Tom Byrne of the IGI met representatives of the BNO in Amsterdam. Interviewed were Gert Gerrits, project assistant, BNO (especially for illustrators) and Jurgen Wiersma, illustrator and founding member in 1985, of the Dutch Association of Illustrators (NIC).
First, a few details about the BNO & Holland: The BNO (Beroepsorganisatie Nederlandse Ontwerpers): represents the interests of around three thousand Dutch graphic designers, industrial designers, environmental designers, packaging designers, fashion designers and illustrators. The BNO has been representing illustrators since the Dutch Association of Illustrators (NIC, founded in 1985 which had previously existed for twelve years) merged with them in 1998. Membership is not limited to graduates of illustration colleges and many members are self-taught. Altogether, it is estimated that there are seven hundred illustrators altogether in Holland, three hundred and twenty-five of whom are BNO members. All in a country that in terms of land area, is not much bigger than Munster. Interestingly, there are thirteen schools of illustration and ten illustration agents in Holland.
Graphic designers and illustrators often work closely together in the Netherlands. However, a reduction in the amount of illustration used in Holland has been attributed to the advent of the computer in mainstream design in the early nineties. Specifically, stock images available over the internet and designers creating their own computer-based illustrations, are regarded as the most important contributing factors. However, over the last twelve months, both in Holland and in the USA, a marked increase in the amount of illustration being commissioned has been noted by the BNO. The BNO claims that illustration users in local government, decision-makers within companies (who latterly have used computer imagery) and designers have begun to realise that there can be an improvement in their designs’ effectiveness by using illustration.
Jurgen, you work as a full-time professional illustrator, do you have an illustration agent?
I did but I left them when they set up a stock agency, which I saw as a conflict of interest. When illustration was not selling well, they turned to stock photography; so I quit them. If everyone in Europe put their work into stock, and the work is then sold in America and Japan, what’s to stop American and Japanese agents selling their stock here? In that situation, we’ll all be out of work.
Are there any unique illustration movements in Holland?
We have had a tradition in Holland of very fine, very delicate, almost photographic-like illustration but that’s almost gone now.
Why do you think that is? How have such illustrators coped with the decline?
Maybe it’s because the market in Holland is very small, so a lot of illustrators here work for foreign markets, for instance the United States. Some illustrators have agents abroad.
How does the BNO support illustration in Holland?
Formerly, the NIC (Dutch Association of Illustrators) produced an illustration book every two years in which members paid for two, four or six pages of their work. Since merging with other disciplines in the BNO, we produce a much larger edition including industrial design, graphic design, new media, packaging design, environmental design and a volume for illustration. Each discipline has its own book and they are sold together as a set and distributed throughout the world. The BNO has a very good reputation and if you are a BNO member you are supposed to be a very good designer, which is very nice for us. This edition has only been on the market for two months but it is already very well regarded.
Another important thing that we do is put on an exhibition every year of all the illustrators. Around fifty percent of all Dutch illustrators have joined the BNO and this is an opportunity for them to compete for the annual illustrator’s prize of 2,200 Euro. We find that a lot of our buyers come to the exhibition to look for new talent. We publish a catalogue every year and there’s a big party with lots of food and drink. You’ll find the catalogue of the 2001 edition on the BNO-web-site: http://213.159.4.111/nl/planeetbno/
Dutch design has a very good reputation around the world, particularly in Ireland where it’s highly regarded. Do you think that design plays a major part in society?
The importance of design is becoming more obvious. For example, during the last election in the United States the (chad) problem in the Florida election was caused by bad design. We publish a book called Design Matters to help people understand design.
Does the BNO get involved in the education of members?
We hold a course for illustrators, to educate them in improving their business skills. We inform them on their rights; for example, what to do if someone uses one of their illustrations without permission. Another important topic is how to maintain contact with your prospects and clients. Another important event is our portfolio surgery, where agents come in and look at illustrators’ portfolios and suggest better ways of presenting themselves and their work. They can suggest the best people an illustrator can visit based on their portfolio, or indeed who to avoid because the work is inappropriate. It can seem to be a bit difficult sometimes because people spend a lot of time working on portfolios but they may not always be going in the right direction for the kind of clients that they want. However, their work might be suitable for someone that they never considered. We try to do it in a friendly but forthright sort of way. The main thing is to look after the members and to be honest. Currently, we’re looking for someone to hold a workshop on how to meet art buyers.
How do you educate members in the business aspects of their work, for example, pricing?
We give advice to members and that includes putting a price on illustration and design; how to calculate overheads and all that. We give average prices for certain types of use, but the figures apply more to the illustrator who is just starting out.
J.W: When you are more experienced and well established, you can ask for whatever you feel is right, so members are not contained by the guide. A lot of illustrators here feel nervous about charging but we find that when you know how to charge professionally, you are treated more respectfully. How much to charge is one of our membership’s most frequently asked questions. Gert: In fact designers phone us and ask how much they should pay for illustration! We give a lot of advice to people who are just starting as freelance illustrators. People who have just left school ask us what do you have to do. How much should I charge? What if the customer doesn’t pay me? It is all in the book, with guideline fees for designers. I think it is very good. We find that the more people read the book, the more questions they think up; so it balances out. It was devised to help designers in this country, to make their lives easier.
We also publish a monthly magazine entitled Relating the Design. Of course, it’s written in Dutch and it features illustrations inside and sometimes on the cover. Young designers are asked to do a two year stint of designing the magazine, although for each new edition someone else is given the chance to design the cover. After two years the magazine design changes again. Back in the days of the NIC (Dutch Association of Illustrators), the magazine was only concerned with illustration but now we are a part of a much larger organisation, all the member categories must be represented; designers, illustrators, architects and industrial designers.
Gert, you were with the NIC (Dutch Illustrators’ organisation) before it was the BNO. Have things changed a lot since the formation of the BNO?
Yes a great deal. Originally we had a lot of things that needed doing but there was no money to do them. Members of the NIC were dissatisfied because of the lack of funding and some left the organisation. Without funding we couldn’t afford to do things professionally and it’s important that if you do something that you do it professionally.
When we started the BNO I used to have an office in a room of Jurgen’s house. Things are more professional now, we have a great building (Weesperstraat 5 1018 DN Amsterdam) and above all, staff.
Do you get funding from the Dutch government?
No! What we do is, when there is a special project, like an annual exhibition or the publication of a book, we apply to an arts foundation who will fund any projects that they think are worthwhile. Apart from this arts body, we are always on the lookout for sponsors and I have to say, it always seems quite easy to find them. I think it has a lot to do with the BNO name. People realise the benefits of sponsoring BNO projects because they know that their name will be published in our magazine and they’ll raise their profile amongst designers.
In Ireland, the subject of info-graphics has generated a lot of interest. How is it viewed in the Netherlands?
Gert: Well, our own web site has a section devoted to info-graphics. There are eighty members who are all professionally involved with creating info-graphics and they are all very eager to meet and share information with one another. However, there’re not so many that we would set up another section of the association, although it is a branch of illustration that is developing very quickly. Indeed, the advice on prices that we give out is mainly about illustration and info-graphics.
Looking at the BNO book, the quality of the design and the unique typography are very impressive. Do you think that Dutch designers are less dependent on computers than other designers?
Gert: Yes. A lot of hand-designed work has disappeared around the world but here in Holland people still design typefaces using pencil and paper, so the skills to create something really different are still alive. Having said that, some people in the USA say things have already changed and that people are designing by hand a lot more. Sometimes the lack of change in the Netherlands is an advantage, people look to Holland for design. Recently there was a design conference in Stuttgart where the Germans showed the work of Dutch graphic designers to their clients and said that Dutch design was much better than German design. We haven’t figured out why they did this because it doesn’t seem very smart but that’s what they did. We think that they want their designers to improve by making the clients demand more creativity.
The IGI wishes to thank the BNO for taking the time to answer our questions and we hope to form a closer relationship in the future.
BNO
Association of Dutch Designers
Weesperstraat 5
1018 DN Amsterdam
T 020 624 47 48
F 020 627 85 85
E bno@bno.nl
W www.bno.nl
You can see Jurgen Wiersma’s work at:
www.s-a-k.nl
