The Curly Letter of Amsterdam / De Amsterdamse Krulletter

Ramiro Espinoza

What are the origins of the exuberant swash letters that can be found on the windows of many of Amsterdam’s most traditional bars? Who painted them? Was it a collective creation, or the work of a lone gifted letter painter? How old is the style?
For almost a decade Ramiro Espinoza (www.re-type.com) thoroughly researched this lettering style and documented every surviving example in Amsterdam, Maastricht and Ghent in an effort to answer these questions and raise awareness of the importance of this little known chapter of the Dutch graphical tradition.
In beautiful black and white, photographer Rob Becker documented all existing windows in Amsterdam, Maastricht and Ghent in order to capture the ambience and context in which the curly script flourished. His photos are not only a report of the topic in general, but they also form a true artistic homage to the Amsterdam ‘brown’ cafés. 

The book (Dutch / English) is available at:
http://www.lecturisbooks.nl/en/webshop/de-amsterdamse-krulletter/62955

Some images at Behance:
https://www.behance.net/gallery/25210855/De-Amsterdamse-Krulletter-book

Florian Hardwig

Congrats, Ramiro! Will the book be available at Typo Berlin? Bücherbogen usually has a temporary book store at the conference – maybe you can arrange something with them or the Typo team.

Ramiro Espinoza

Thanks for the hint. I'll tell the publisher to see if it can be arranged.

John Hudson

Anywhere else from where I can order this book, Ramiro? The Lecturis order system makes assumptions about address formats that really don't apply in Canada.

Ramiro Espinoza

Hi John, I will notify Lecturis's people. You can also buy it at: https://bijzonderecollecties.hexspoorwms.nl/EN/webshop/nijhof-en-lee/de-amsterdamse-krulletter/77813&page=