Anouk de l’Ecluse

is an independent designer who has become an expert in guiding (undeveloped) stories and developing strong concepts. I believe that every design can reveal a unique story and should reinforce it to achieve the desired goal. With my work, I aim to exceed expectations. This requires extraordinary stories and courageous clients. Together, we can harvest admiration for the power of narratives. 

WORKTABLE OF CONTENTS RESEARCH ABOUTCONTACT
    

A random shuffling impression of a selection of work

   


Projects include, but are not limited to, conceptual exhibitions, playful websites, harmonious installations, perpetually morphing stories, typographic campaigns, creative research, a ball of yarn, and a platform.

    For any questions, inquiries and/or collaborations, please don't hesitate to get in touch. I’m based in Amsterdam but that’s just a given.


First draft
First draft
First draft
First draft

Land Zonder Grenzen


Mister Motley

Identity design 

In what ways can we give meaning so that understanding arises? In Land Zonder Grenzen – Country Without Borders – series, Mister Motley investigates and highlights four facets of inaccessibility in the arts field together with four different expert authors. What degree of inaccessibility do people with a ‘physical’ disability, older people, parents of growing children and neurodisabled people experience? It is about the importance of representation, finding words for which there is not yet much language, and actively working towards a more inclusive and representative (art) world. With Land Zonder Grenzen, it gives the opportunity to expand our collective vocabulary, making access more visible and tangible.

For the identity of this series I wanted to play with the accessibility to do with boundaries/borders. This made my think of islands surrounded by water. Their borders are constantely in motion. It also displays the complexity of access, the grey areas but also the idea of walking around the problem/island and finding other and new insights through experts.




Colophon 
Concept & design
    Anouk de l’Ecluse

Font
     PrincipiaVF

First  publication
https://www.mistermotley.nl/land-zonder-grenzen-kun-je-van-een-ander-die-niet-in-jouw-hoofd-zit-verlangen-dat-die-je-snapt/




        

    A World Shaped Differently


    Caroline Kist

    Exhibition (text) design 

    After designing Caroline her website I had the honour of continuing our great collaboration. For her first solo exhibition at Atelier K84 I was responsible for all the design output such as the poster, a booklet and all the typography in the exhibition. You can almost say I’ve managed to create an identity which is very fitting and at this moment in time, timeless. 

         To see what Caroline is up to now, have a look at her website!



    Colophon 
    Concept & design
        Anouk de l’Ecluse

    Images
         Caroline Kist

    Fonts
         ABC Dinamo Diatype Light
         Freight Text



    carolinekist.nl









      other proposals
      other proposals
      other proposals

      De derde vrouw / Natalie C. Barney


      Velvet Publishers

      Book design 

      Velvet Publishers is the Dutch publisher of les-bi-queer literature. By publishing LBQ stories, Velvet Publishers aims to actively contribute to the positive representation of les-bi-queer individuals with editions of LBQ classics, modern translated literature and the launch of a special new series: the les-bi-queer Pulpature series.
      Their mission is a wider and happier representation of les-bi-queers' lives in Dutch-language literature.

          For their series Vintage publications Velvet publishers asked me to design the cover of ‘De derde vrouw’ by Natalie Clifford Barney. In English the book is know as ‘Women Lovers, Or the Third Woman’ and is a lesbian love triangle avant la lettre. It is an intense and poetic modernist novel about three women deeply devoted and in love with each other, and chronicles the transformation of their relationship. The idea of the “Third Woman” is not only a reference to one of the women in the novel being left out by the others, but also to the idea that being a lesbian was being part of a “third sex”.  

          Due to the fact that the book was the first within the series, I had to not only design a captivating cover but also create a concept for the coming books within the Vintage series. The traingle became the core element in which I constructed the concept. It is a prominent shape within Velvet’s identity and ties it together to the V of vintage. 1 + 1 becomes more. 
           For this title we chose to have the design reminiscent of a kaleidoscope. But the concept is so that it is very versatile in usage. Cool fact – the image on the cover is Natalie Clifford Barney herself!



      Colophon 
      Concept & design
          Anouk de l’Ecluse

      Image
          Natalie Clifford Barney, c. 1898, photograph by Emery, Bar Harbor (Maine)







        Brochure 2024


        Velvet Publishers

        Print design 

        Velvet Publishers is the Dutch publisher of les-bi-queer literature. By publishing LBQ stories, Velvet Publishers aims to actively contribute to the positive representation of les-bi-queer individuals with editions of LBQ classics, modern translated literature and the launch of a special new series: the les-bi-queer Pulpature series.
        Their mission is a wider and happier representation of les-bi-queers' lives in Dutch-language literature.

            For the 2024 launch of their books I designed the brochure based on the identity made by studio megan. A great collaboration within a limited time frame and budget. Who says you can’t design nice items with limitations?



        Colophon 
        Concept & design
            Anouk de l’Ecluse

        Text
             Velvet Publishers

        Font
             Ginka

        Print
             Pantheon Drukkers







          To look is to wait


          Caroline Kist

          Website design

          Photography is waiting, waiting to see that which is unknow if it will come. Only when Caroline has found it does she know what she was looking for. That takes time. Most of her images hover between coincidence and attribution, between what she sees and what she is looking for.

             But just as the unknown can only emerge from the known, so can freedom of the imagination only really emerge from limitation, from a structure.
          This structure sends the looking in a direction that seems to lead outside the image. Seeing by looking, and doubting.

              In the way Caroline talks about her work I wanted the viewer of the website to be able to meander and touch upon the waiting element. When you make a choice it sets something in motion. Elements appear and disappear, similar to what you see in Caroline’s images. So instead of just stumbling into her images, I gave the text a prominent roll to really settle down and tap into a concentrated state of mind. This way the website stacks meaning on top of each other to eventually create space to absorb the idea of ‘to look is to wait’.



          Colophon Photography & text
              Caroline Kist

          Concept & design
             Anouk de l’Ecluse



          carolinekist.nl



            ‘Aborted Biography, from the Archive of Djuna Barnes’, 2024, prints, courtesy the digital archives of the University of Maryland, U.S.A., and the personal archive of Hank O’Neal, and the artist. Installation view «Barbara Visser – Alreadymade», Kunsthaus Zürich, 2024 Curated by Simone Gehr. Photo: © Kunsthaus Zürich, Franca Candrian
            ‘Aborted Biography, from the Archive of Djuna Barnes’, 2024, prints, courtesy the digital archives of the University of Maryland, U.S.A., and the personal archive of Hank O’Neal, and the artist.
            Map of exhibition Kunsthaus Zürich
            Installing exhibition
            Installing Georg Kolbe (1877–1947),
            Wälzende, 1926 Bronze
            Alberto Giacometti, Kopf der Mutter. Studie (clay, ca.1916), obscured by a Failed Fountain (ceramic, 2024), Barbara Visser
            Sketch of the subjective time line of Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven
            Elsa Freytag-Loringhoven’s subjective  time line  of  people, places, events, gossip, works on the wall in pencil. In front: The blind man, 5.1917
            Installation view «Barbara Visser – Alreadymade», Kunsthaus Zürich, 2024 Photo: © Kunsthaus Zürich, Franca Candrian

            Alreadymade II (installation)


            Barbara Visser

             Sparring partner exhibition 
            Documentation + text design
             08.02.2024 – 12.05.2024 Kunsthaus Zürich

            ‘Fountain’, a urinal that was declared to be a work of art in 1917, is perhaps the best-known conceptual object of the 20th century. Signed ‘R. Mutt’, it was submitted anonymously to an exhibition by the Society of Independent Artists in New York; since then, everyday objects can be ‘readymades’ and qualify as art too. Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) claimed authorship of the work. However, there are rumours that it was not he who masterminded it but rather the Dada artist Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven (1874–1927).

                The film ‘Alreadymade’ (2023), which forms the basis for Visser’s site-specific installation at Kunsthaus Zürich, is an alternative whodunnit that explores the boundaries between genuine and fake. ‘Fountain’ is the starting point of the artist and film-maker’s investigation into the speculation surrounding Duchamp’s authorship. Adopting the readymade approach, she produces the work from existing material: found film footage from which she creates her own moving images, employing new technologies such as motion capture and meta-human modelling. The result is not an art-historical documentation; rather, the mix of existing and newly created material serves as a reflection on such fundamental questions as ‘what is reality, and what is fake?’ Who is the author? What is an original and what is a copy?

                Barbara asked me to be her sparring partner for this exhibition and give shape to parts of it. Working closely together we discussed the installation and I became responsible for the time line of Von Freytag-Loringhoven her life with all the ambiguity surrounding it, the sketches of Djuna Barnes her ideas of the biography she would never write of Von Freytag-Loringhoven and helped on multiple parts consisting of the graphic design within the exhibition; such as the ‘do not touch’ items + a reader consisting of all the writing of Von Freytag-Loringhoven. I also assisted Barbara during the installation of the exhibition in Kunsthaus Zürich.

                Kunsthaus Zürich is the first museum where this new work was shown. It will also be shown in Germany and possibly in the Netherlands.



            barbaravisser.net
            kunsthaus.ch





              3:1


              Elisabeth van Sandick

              Book design

              A book which comes in three parts plus an index. As Sandick puts it: ‘Nothing is ever the same, for what I see today may seem entirely different tomorrow. The formal object I observe is a shape that bears an identity, a character that I can relate to and that manifests itself in fresh ways each time I see it. That turns them into landmarks* in the world I set out into. And to which I return. Always in a different manner. Going back does not mean standing still, even if it feels that way at times. Until I spot something I hadn’t known before, and find that I can return and move forward at the same time. 
                  *Landmarks: objects that I know and do not know.’

                  This publication plays with the conceptual idea that images can return and have a different meaning. A zooming in and out, a rotation in time and place, a returning but with different meaning. The monumental structures you think you have seen before but by keeping the design and edit structured and minimal, everything has its place where it is. However subtle it may initially appear. You could even think there is not an order as such; all to keep returning to it as if it were a first encounter.



              ColophonPhotography & text
                  Elisabeth van Sandick

              Concept & design

                   Anouk de l’Ecluse 
                 
              Edit
                  Elisabeth van Sandick
                  Karianne Bueno
                  Anouk de l’Ecluse

              Lithography
                  Marc Gijzen

              Print
                  Pantheon Drukkers

              Binding
                  Binderij Voetelink Haarlem

              Paper
                  Rebello 100g

              Font
                  Fieldwork



              elisabethvansandick.com




              Let’s build a mountain


              Frederike Kijftenbelt

              Website design

              All around the world, scientists are working on new techniques that resolve our inconveniences, repair deficiencies, or simply entertain us. We generate snow when we want to ski on a green Alpine meadow, or we create two identical snowflakes to show that we are capable of something so exceptional. Science and technology as a toolbox for the shapable world.

                  In the ongoing 'Let's build a mountain' Frederike explores the limits of the shapable, in which the Rhône glacier is a metaphor for the friction between the human urge to control and the resilient autonomy of nature.  

                  With these factors in mind and really knowing how Fredrike goes about her work, I came up with the concept of having all the work displayed in such a way that every part is naturally linked and interweaved. The website then gives you a sense that there is no beginning or end – something Frederike plays with within her work and topics. But looking closer the website does consists of a grid of three columns, linking to every part of the site with gives you a grounded feeling. You never get lost but have room to lose controle.  


              ‘Anouk really listens and very quickly knows to unravel what you long for.’
              — Frederike Kijftenbelt



              Colophon Photography & text
                  Frederike Kijftenbelt

              Concept & design
                 Anouk de l’Ecluse



              frederikekijftenbelt.com




                La cigale et la fourmi


                Karianne Bueno

                Exhibition text design

                What does freedom really mean – as a concept, as something we all seem to aspire?
                About fifteen years ago, in her late twenties, Karianne her cousin E. chose to live her life as free as possible. She is a shepherd in the French mountains for most of the year and spends the rest of her time riding her horses or driving her camper van towards where ever she feels like going.

                    La cigale et la fourmi, which lends its title from a famous fable by Jean La Fontaine about a singing grasshopper and a hard-working ant, is a long-term photography/text project containing a vortex of ideas. It is about the metaphorical place where our personal lives and western society collide, about commitment, feasibility and the human need to be seen in a world that continuously seems to move away from us.

                    For this installation, which was part of Noorderlicht 2023, Karianne asked me to structure her texts. They consist of insights, thoughts, letters, conversations and stories all circling around the idea of freedom.  To keep intact the strolling of thoughts and also containing a conversation in which nothing is set in stone were the key elements for designing the texts. A playfull way of going about a somewhat abstract phenomenon as freedom.

                    This first collaboration might be followed up by working more closely together on the book Karianne will get published somewhere in the future.



                Colophon Photography & text
                    Karianne Bueno

                Concept & design
                    Anouk de l’Ecluse 

                Installation photos
                    Harry Cock
                   


                kariannebueno.com