Karel Martens: Design Hero
ToolsAfter Effects, InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop
Time / Team9 Weeks, Spring 2025
[Sole Designer]
Project OverviewIn his ever-evolving creative practice, Dutch designer Karel Martens remains an enigma. Through print and digital mediums, I explore Karel’s visual language, interdisciplinary career, and extensive life story.
Artifact 01 / Animation
Animation Process Blog
Animatic
Karel Martens is a printmaker at his core. This narrative traces Karel’s practice back to his monoprinting roots, playing with type and illustrative assets to convey his story in expressive, unexpected ways.
It felt fitting to honor Karel’s identity with ink-and-paper visuals. To reflect his meticulous craftsmanship, I gave this animation a hand-drawn feel using constant jitter and scratchy linework. The voiceover, a synthesis of many Martens quotes, was read by my dad -- special thanks!
Artifact 02 / Poster
Print-inspired motifs
“Nederlands Grafisch Ontwerper Karel Martens - Dutch Graphic Designer Karel Martens.” This poster is a synthesis of Karel Martens’ signature visual motifs. To pay homage to a unique Martens line-printing style, I designed a custom typeface using layered lines. Since Karel is known to print on repurposed graphs, charts, and tables, I created a delicately marked-up backdrop, featuring small pencil notations and smudges.
Artifact 03 / Booklet
Booklet Process Blog
Full Booklet Essay
Through vibrant spreads, this booklet chronicles Karel Martens’ life story and multifaceted practice. Each page highlights a different side of Karel: artist, designer, collector, teacher, and luminary. I pay homage to his vibrant visual style through color blocked forms, more line printing, and a typeface he designed himself: JL Pirelli. A great learning experience in creating a consistent, yet playful, visual language.
Closing Thoughts
Through this work, I developed a visual system that successfully unified every asset in the Karel Martens collection while maintaining flexibility across formats. I was also able to pay tribute to Martens' life and design practice without losing my own perspective as a designer, which was a task that felt intimidating at the start of the project. Most importantly, the extensive experimentation required throughout the process helped me build new skills in branding and visual systems design that will continue to inform my future work.
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