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Karel Martens: Love Letters

Karel Martens: Love Letters - Main image
$23.04 $36 In stock

Category: Wms&Co.

Love Letters is a selection of 46 envelopes for the letters that Dutch graphic designer Karel Martens sent to his love, Lous, between 1962 and 1963.

The envelopes were all manually crafted using printing ink and a spoon to create the pattern. Printed during his military service, when Martens was stationed in the drawing room of the Welfare Service at the Prins Hendrik Barracks. A sweet meditation on paper, ink, color, and pattern and a testament to creativity and love in less than ideal circumstances.

While Martens was deployed, he was tasked with designing a poster titled “Don’t croak about military service matters, the enemy is listening."

Published by Roma Publications, 2024.

When Karel Martens began studying art in the late 1950s, graphic design did not exist as its own course of study. Today, he is widely recognized as one of the most important practitioners of that very discipline, as well as a highly influential figure in the visual culture of the Netherlands.

Part of our Karel Martens collection.

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Customer Reviews (5.0 / 5 · 2 reviews)

Sebastian ★★★★★

The stamps and postmarks on these envelopes are the real draw, but the hand-printed textures on each one make just flipping through the 46 pieces feel like a quiet little archive. It’s a very specific collector’s item, though, so unless you’re into graphic design history, it might sit on your shelf

Zoe B. ★★★★★

I bought this for the envelopes themselves, not the letters, and the printing on each one is genuinely intricate. Forty-six of them, all handcrafted, and I keep flipping back through to spot small details I missed the first time.