On a crisp Halloween evening, Rezidența9’s gallery space hums with anticipation as it prepares to become Glitch Library’s home away from home. Some wine, some small chat, some lets do this. Over fifty people have gathered to hear Amsterdam-based graphic designer Richard Niessen speak about his three-decade journey through the evolving landscape of Dutch design.
Just hours earlier, Richard’s partner, Esther de Vries had shared an intimate conversation about book design in the Glitch Library, and now, as darkness settles over the city, he prepares to unfold the curious tale of what he calls The Palace of Typographic Masonry – an institute born from the delightful premise that graphic design deserves its own peculiar palace of wonders.
Enter the library
“Strangely, there wasn’t an institution in the Netherlands that took a stand for what visual communication is about,” Niessen reflects, his voice carrying a mix of frustration and determination that would eventually birth an entirely new institution. The Palace of Typographic Masonry, founded in 2015, emerged as his response to what he perceived as an increasingly homogenized design landscape.
Through the lens of his career, spanning nearly three decades since his graduation from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in 1996, Niessen paints a picture of the Netherlands as a former “graphic paradise.” He points to the old Dutch Guilder banknotes – adorned with sunflowers, endangered birds, and lighthouses – as everyday masterpieces that once touched the lives of millions. These weren’t mere currency; they were manifestos of possibility in graphic design.
“I developed these traveling educational boxes in which the building blocks would become elements of play, of a game,” Niessen explains, describing how the Palace manifests physically. Organized into nine departments – Signs, Symbols, Ornaments, Construction, Play, Poetics, Order, Craft, and Practice – it exists simultaneously as a physical and conceptual space, with each department represented by puzzle pieces that invite exploration and interaction.
In collaboration with graphic designer Esther de Vries, who brought her distinct sensibility to the project’s design, Niessen created “The Palace of Typographic Masonry: A Guided Tour” – a 348-page journey through the Palace’s imaginary corridors. Published in Leipzig in 2018, this perfect-bound softcover serves as both guide and manifesto, featuring 240 black-white and colour illustrations that illuminate its pages. “I asked Dirk van Weelden, a writer, to be my ghost writer,” Niessen shares, “so he is the guide in this Palace, taking you along as sort of Willy Wonka in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, from room to room.”
The Palace found a striking temporary home in a recent exhibition within a church in Breda. Here, Niessen created dedicated cases for each department, topped with plexiglass displays showing his entire collection on index cards. Below, drawers reveal responses to these collections through books, magazines, and lightboxes, while an audio tour allows visitors to hear Niessen himself describe each case in detail.
As the evening unfolds at Rezidența9, it becomes clear that The Palace of Typographic Masonry is more than an institution – it’s a sanctuary for the preservation of design’s poetic soul. In an era where efficiency often trumps expression, Niessen’s Palace stands as a reminder of graphic design’s capacity for wonder, strangeness, and transformation.
The talk ended with a sense of possibility hanging in the air, as if the boundaries between the practical and the poetic had momentarily dissolved. Niessen’s Palace, with its curious departments and traveling boxes, offers a new way of seeing – one where graphic design reclaims its role as a vehicle for imagination and cultural enrichment.
Richard Niessen’s lecture is part of our ongoing series exploring the intersection of design, culture, and creative practice. The full recording of the lecture is available below.
The Richard Niessen Artist Talk is part of the Glitch Library’s knowledge-sharing program, designed to bring together artists, designers, and the general public. Past talks have included designer painter & cultural manager Suzana Dan, artist and curator Alina Andrei, photographer Lucian Bran, and video artist Larisa Crunțeanu.
The Glitch Library offers the perfect setting to engage with talks, exhibitions, and the growing collection of art and design materials to ignite new perspectives and possibilities. Visit us to explore more, reflect on the intersections between art and design, and participate in our ongoing dialogue about culture and creativity.
To go deeper with Richard, check out an interview with Richard Niessen here.
Subscribe to our newsletter here.
Follow our socials here.
