Project: Ridders in de Bijlmer
Partners: Evert van Voskuilen, gemeente Amsterdam, stadsdeel Zuidoost
Disciplines: Graphic Design, Image Research,
Year: 2014
Ridders in de Bijlmer (Knights in Bijlmer) is a 360-page hard cover book that offers a walk through the history of the South East area of Amsterdam, from an Urban Planner’s perspective. A richly illustrated story about the early reclamation of polders, bloody conflicts between knights, dukes and clergymen and the creation of a ‘New Town’: De Bijlmermeer.
Ridders in de Bijlmer is written by Evert van Voskuilen, Urban Planner for gemeente Amsterdam stadsdeel Zuidoost from 1987 until 2013. The people of stadsdeel Zuidoost invited Vinger.nl to turn Everts story into a book. Quite a process and certainly a rewarding job, all the way from creating the visual concept and graphic design to the desktop production, image & text editing and image research, selection and clearance. The book was published by gemeente Amsterdam stadsdeel Zuidoost in 2014.
Visual Concept
Through the ages the land of De Bijlmermeer was characterized by radical changes. By the forces of nature and the hand of man the Bijlmer transformed from peat into lake into polder, then got intentionally flooded, was reclaimed as polder again, flooded again, was reclaimed once more and was eventually used for agriculture until 1965 when they decided it was time for the largest urban sprawl in Dutch history.
If there is one thing that runs through the history of De Bijlmer it’s water... Such a powerful element that provided us with all the inspiration needed for the visual concept for this book. The five shades of blue are a crystal clear reference and help the reader flow through the large amount of content with ease. The restyled crest of Bijlmer falls onto the cover like a drop of water. A refreshing form for an ancient story!
The Crest of Bijlmer
The Crest of De Bijlmermeer dates back to at least 1626. It was found on the map of the first parcelling of the district. It refers to the history of the land mainly used for hunting boars and herons by the upper social class of Amsterdam, residing here at their manors.
Vinger.nl invited illustrators Anne van den Berg and Rutger Paulusse to make a modern version so we could re-introduce the Bijlmer Crest to the reading audience.
Parts, chapters and color coding
The book is divided into three parts. Each part is introduced with a monochrome spread page presenting the respective subjects and colour coding.
Part I is about the origins of the area dating back to the first reclamations during the Middle Ages.
Part II is about the modern vision, the construction and the renewal of the large scale urbanisation pro-ject: De Bijlmermeer as we know it now.
Part III is a testimonial of De Bijlmer today in the form of personal interviews, anecdotes and thematic articles.
The book is made up out of 18 chapters. Every chapter starts with a full spread in colour code and with a short text introducing the topic. The tranquil layout, marking the start of every new chapter, creates a strong contrast with the colourful imagery on all other pages helping readers navigate.
Richly illustrated
For the production of this richly illustrated book we scooped around in 50+ archives. We also took care of the image editing and clearance.
Here we see the Register Remissorium Philippi;
index op de grafelijke registers, displaying the crests and privileges of the Dukes of Holland, produced somewhere between 1434 and 1450 and part of the collection of the National Archive of Den Haag.
The family tree of Amsterdam
This page is pretty special to us. We researched many archives for a visual
representation of the lineage of the House of Amstel, founding fathers of the city of Amsterdam. Though all data was available, we didn’t find what we were looking for so Vinger.nl invited visual artist Bert Jacobs to make this illustration.
Emile Jaensch, portefeuillehouder gemeente Amsterdam stadsdeel Zuidoost
“We zijn vergeten dat er een geschiedenis vooraf ging aan Amsterdam Zuidoost sinds de vernieuwing van de Bijlmer. Daarover valt zoveel te vertellen, dat het zonde is om het niet te doen. Met dit boek geven we die geschiedenis terug aan de mensen die nu wonen en werken in Amsterdam Zuidoost en aan iedereen die zich met dit stadsdeel verbonden voelt.”
Peter-Paul de Baar, hoofdredacteur Ons Amsterdam
“Bijlmer echt ouder dan 1968! In 1968 kregen de eerste bewoners van de Bijlmermeer hun huissleutels van wethouder Thomas Elsenburg. En het lijkt wel of dit deel van Amsterdam voor de discussies over de bouw helemaal niet bestond. Weilanden met koeien en ooit was er meer, kortom eeuwen zonder verhalen. Die voorgeschiedenis was er wel en Evert van Voskuilen (van 1987 tot 2013 stedenbouwkundige in dienst van Zuidoost) heeft die na grondig onderzoek helder en boeiend opgeschreven. …… Intussen in dit wel het eerste boek over de volledige geschiedenis van Zuidoost, van de prehistorie tot nu. En nog een goed boek ook.”
Evert van Voskuilen,
auteur Ridders in de Bijlmer
“Het boek Ridders in de Bijlmer, over de geschiedenis van Amsterdam Zuidoost van ca 8oo na Chr tot 2012 is mede een succes vanwege de zeer zorgvuldige en tot de verbeelding sprekende vormgeving. De lay out, het lettertype en het invoeren van de afbeeldingen
zijn consciëntieus, met gevoel voor het onderwerp en met vakmanschap vormgegeven. Waarbij het bureau ook onder hoge tijdsdruk hun standaard voor de kwaliteit overeind hield. Ik ben ze zeer erkentelijk.”
Colophon
Ridders in de Bijlmer is published by gemeente Amsterdam stadsdeel Zuidoost © 2014.
Idea & initiative: Emile Jaensch
Author: Evert van Voskuilen
Second author: Netty Droog
Project management stadsdeel Zuidoost: Frans Carlier
Project management: Bob Duynstee / DuynsteePolak
Text editing: Evert van Voskuilen, Netty Droog, Frans Carlier, Rutha Fessehaye, Bob Duynstee
Editorial contributions: Karin Wesselink, Joris Bellwinkel, Leonie Sinnema, Netty Droog, Evert van Voskuilen
Final editing: DuynsteePolak
Image research: Sara Mattens, Petra Ponte / Vinger.nl
Image editing: Jeffrey Croese, Sara Mattens / Vinger.nl
Graphic design and production: Jeffrey Croese, Sara Mattens, Rutger Paulusse / Vinger.nl
Design cover image: Rutger Paulusse, Anne van den Berg
Print: Van Aalst Printmanagement
Circulation: 3.000
ISBN/EAN: 978-90-90286853