Details
Cartoonist Joost Swarte has done a lot in his long career, but this puzzle is the only toy he has designed. The illustrations for this puzzle show the great creativity and the craftsmanship of the comic artist. It is a great blessing that kids can get in touch with the work of this design master.
'The Times They Are A Changin' (Bob Dylan)
The Times They Are A Changin, and so is this house. It has evolved over time, from the pre-history, to the birth of Christ, to the Dutch Golden Age, untill today. The house has a living room, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and an attic. Any user can rebuild the house to its own preferences, mixing the rooms and periods to funny combinations. The puzzle is educating history in a fun way. The illustrations of Joost are very detailed, there’s a lot to see and to discover.
Three-layered puzzle with illustrations by Joost Swarte for IKONIC. Two layers are full color printed on both sides.
Material:
Birch plywood
With 15 puzzle pieces
Dimensions:
30 x 30 x 2,3 cm
Age rating:
3+
About Joost Swarte
Joost Swart (Heemstede, 1947) graduated as industrial designer, is a Dutch cartoonist, designer and architect with an impressive career. What didn’t he do? He started his own comic, made illustrations for CD covers, magazine covers, founded a publishing company, designed stained glass windows, fabrics, furniture, buildings……But most of all, he coined the term ‘the clear line’:
“The ligne claire, or “clear line,” is a drawing language, in which forms are represented by drawing the outlines in an evenly thick line. The reader understands this language and transforms the outlines into three-dimensional forms. It started with Hergé, in the fifties, but has since been inherited by quite a few Dutch, French, and Belgian artists. “ (Joost Swarte in The New Yorker, may 7, 2018)
Joost Swarte studied Industrial Design in Eindhoven in the late 1960s, and produced illustrations for local publications during that time. He first appeared in the spotlights as part of the alternative cartoon movement of the 1970s.
Halfway through the 1980s, Swarte’s field of activity moved from cartoon drawing to making illustrations for magazines such as Humo, Vrij Nederland and The New Yorker. He also designs posters, logos, stamps, furniture and buildings (Toneelschuur, Haarlem, 2003).
Furthermore, Swarte is co-initiator of magazines, of the largest biennial cartoon festival in Europe, and he is one of the initiators of the Hergé Museum in Belgium.
Joost Swarte won the Dutch Comic Award in 1998 for his general contribution to cartoon drawing and his entire body of work.
In 2004 Queen Beatrix appointed him as officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau. For the last few years, Joost was mostly known for the illustrations and covers for The New Yorker and recently a book was published with all the work he made for the magazine. His latest work contains fashion show designs for a major French fashion brand.
Joost Swarte was celebrating his fiftieth anniversary as an illustrator, designer and architect with an exhibition at the Kunsthal Art Museum Rotterdam in 2019.