The Responsive Nature of Book Design: An Evening with Esther de Vries

by Dan

Thursday evening, October 31st – Halloween night – the Glitch Library hums with anticipation. Sitting at a table chockfull with books she had designed, brought all the way from Amsterdam, Esther de Vries is surrounded by an eager audience leafing through her work. The intimate space, warm with conversation & curiosity, embodied what a library should be – a place where art and design intersect, where knowledge circulates openly, where ideas flow freely between creator and audience.

In the landscape of editorial design, Esther de Vries orchestrates a uniquely responsive choreography. Her approach to book design transcends mere aesthetic arrangement, crafting what she calls ‘inextricable books‘ – works where design and narrative become inseparable companions in the reader’s journey.

The Art of Response: A Design Philosophy

“I am more a person that reacts on something that is already there,” de Vries explains, her words cutting to the heart of her design methodology. This seemingly simple statement reveals a sophisticated approach to publication design that has shaped her remarkable career. “I do like to work in a commissioning situation but then with a lot of trust and freedom,” she adds, highlighting the delicate balance between creative autonomy and client needs that characterizes successful editorial design.

Design Process: The Dance of Time and Space

De Vries’s approach to editorial design unfolds most vividly in her work on the Maria Magdalena book. “It takes a long time to figure out how to do it,” she admits, dispelling any notion of instant creative solutions. Faced with the challenge of bringing a subject to life through print when the exhibition had the advantage of film footage, she found her solution through careful consideration of visual rhythm and pacing.

“I decided to make a zoom out of the images,” she explains. “First we see her completely standing, and then after zoom in.” This cinematic approach created a visual journey through the essays, revealing surprising contrasts: “naked and completely covered” or “very confident and maybe a little bit shy.”

The technical aspects of layout design and book design become instruments for pacing: “By having these columns and cutting them whenever the text feels okay to cut actually… I could sort of slow down the text or hurry up to make them match with the images.” This approach rejects traditional grid systems in favor of something more organic, giving “air to the page… not in a sort of classical way with the golden section ratio… but more in an unexpected way, and every page is therefore also different.”

Notable Projects: From Typography to Social Change

Perhaps nowhere is de Vries’s responsive approach more evident than in her innovative typography project for the New Institute in Rotterdam’s children’s department. Inspired by early Disney animation where cartoons interact with real people, she transformed what could have been a standard institutional identity into a collaborative typography workshop.

“I asked the children, ‘Which letter would you like to make?'” she recalls. The resulting typeface merged photographs of children with their imaginative drawings, creating letters that spoke both to and through their creators. During the pandemic, this project evolved further: “I asked the children to send me pictures of their favorite objects… then I printed that out in black and white and sent that by normal mail back to them in different sizes.”

Her portfolio extends into more socially conscious territory with a book documenting a man’s journey from homelessness to housing – recognized among the Best Dutch Book Designs. The book design becomes a powerful storytelling tool, using government-blue colored pages for official documents and creating a monthly chronicle that captures both mundane and profound moments.

“I needed something to get me into the project,” de Vries recalls. “Every spread is a month… I thought we should really make it visible that it takes time actually, and that you have to wait.” This attention to temporal design creates a rhythm that pulls readers through the story while highlighting systemic social issues.

Evolution and Reflection: The Price of Principles

De Vries’s journey reveals how creative principles can both guide and challenge a book designer’s path. With disarming honesty, she shares a pivotal moment from her early career: “I designed stamps for a year, a whole series, and they wanted me to continue. I said, ‘No, I want to do it with a group of people.’ They said, ‘No, we don’t want that. We only want it if you would do it.'”

Looking back, she reflects on the rigidity of her younger self: “Later I regretted it because it was a really well-paid job. Why did I do so difficult? I was really much more black and white or strict… a bit too radical in a way that it backfired.”

This evolution in thinking extends to her approach to artist books. “I noticed for a lot of artists when we made books, it helped a lot for their career somehow. It’s as if they are taken more seriously after that.” Yet she maintains her commitment to authentic representation over commercial appeal, even when it means challenging publisher expectations.

Current Work and Future Directions

De Vries’s recent projects reveal an increasing engagement with social issues. Her housing first program book now influences policy discussions: “It’s on the table of the municipality not only in Amsterdam but also in other cities.” This shift from artistic to social impact energizes her: “I enjoyed it very much to have not the art scene for a moment as the audience but to have these people who are actually making the decisions in society.”

Her current work with refugees further exemplifies this direction: “We’re sort of celebrating their mother languages and making newspaper out of that.” This project reveals how typography and layout can serve both aesthetic and social purposes, creating spaces for marginalized voices to be heard.

Part of a Larger Conversation

De Vries’s Halloween night presentation at the Glitch Library transcended a simple portfolio showing. As part of the Library’s knowledge sharing program, her insights contributed to an ongoing dialogue about design’s role in contemporary culture. The Library, with its curated collection focused on art, design, and cultural theory, provided an ideal setting for this exchange of ideas.

In the end, de Vries’s approach to book design mirrors the Glitch Library’s mission itself – creating spaces where ideas can breathe, where creativity flows freely, and where design serves as a bridge between artistic expression and social change. As visitors continued exploring her books in the warm light of that October evening, the presentation revealed itself as more than a showcase of beautiful objects – it was a testament to design’s power to forge meaningful connections between people, ideas, and communities.

The evening concluded as part of the Library’s ongoing Design Sessions, where the intersection of art and knowledge fuels creative practice and cultural dialogue. In this context, de Vries’s work illuminated not just the mastery of book design, but design’s vital role in shaping our understanding of the world.

Don’t miss Books & Motion with Liza Enebeis of Studio Dumbar on 20th of February.