Sir, – Prof Linda King's "Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks: 1955 Aer Lingus Summer Timetable by Guus Melai" (Weekend, August 15th) discussed the influence of a group of Dutch graphic designers who came to work for Sun Advertising in 1950s Ireland from KLM.
While an interesting piece, and certainly important in terms of acknowledging a much under-rated moment in Irish design history, it was disappointing and a disservice to the other Dutch designers who Prof King absented from her roll-call of graphic artists, one of whom was my own grandfather and a one-time employee of The Irish Times.
Through the 1950s and 1960s there was a floating pool of about six Dutch designers active in Ireland at any one time who brought their influence to bear on the Irish design and advertising industries.
Moreover, a number of them went on to have influential roles in Irish art and design education and were involved with both NCAD and what we now know as IADT.
These other designers deserve to be noted alongside Jan de Fouw, Piet Sluis, Gerrit van Gelderen, Ries Hoek and Wim van Velsen, and so to her list, we can also add: Bert van Embden, Cor Klaasen, Louis Pieterse, Piet Stroethof, Chris Vis and Nick van Vliet.
Anyone interested in this subject may also be interested in Conor Clarke's book Oranje & Green in which he explores not only the influence of these designers on Irish design, but the return cultural exchange of Irish designers working in the Netherlands. – Yours, etc,
MIEKE VAN EMBDEN
London.