Designer Sepus Noordmans talks about simplicity and structure in his portfolio

Date
29 March 2017

“My first introduction to graphic design was through internet forums for the video games I played when I was younger,” says Amsterdam-based designer Sepus Noordmans. “I started making small signatures for other users that would be displayed underneath their posts on the forum. These ‘designs’ were very simple, often about their favourite video game, other requested subjects or just typography.”

Moving on from internet forums Sepus now works on projects in the cultural and commercial fields, creating identities, typeface, editorial design and web design for his clients. The designer describes his style as “futuristic and technology-inspired” but overall it’s structure that he wants to achieve. “I prefer to pre-define my design choices to establish a framework for me to work in, and adapt it to what a client wants,” explains Sepus. “Because of this my style varies from one project to another, but I think it is visible in most of my projects that I am attempting to be as neat and structured as possible. I mostly try to design as much as I can with typography, limited colour usage and play with the hierarchy.”

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Sepus Noordmans

Recently Sepus has started collaborating with an artist-run gallery called Billytown in The Hague. The designer is in charge of all of the space’s graphic output from exhibitions to merchandising. “While being responsible for its output, I’m simultaneously trying to establish a visual identity for them,” says Sepus. “The ‘in-progress’ identity and combining it with the output is a parallel development, which is new way of working for me, it’s kind of organic.”

Other projects that caught our eye is Sepus’ typeface Line, which is a “reverse contrast typeface with some odd and stubborn differences” and was inspired by typography on old record covers dating back to the 60s and 70s. Sepus’ exhibition identity for Nasjonalmseet in Oslo with Sara Risvaag also caught our eye and saw the designer work collaboratively over Skype and Dropbox with Sara to complete the project.

Within all of Sepus’ project is the idea of simplicity but remaining “bold in the process of designing”. “My work in general tries to embody the message of the project, add my sense of what looks good, without letting this take over the project completely,” explains the designer. “There are situations and projects where I don’t even get the time to consider what I want to convey with my work, but find that some of my stylistic preferences, or my thoughts on what good design might sneak its way in the process somehow.”

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Sepus Noordmans

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Sepus Noordmans

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Sepus Noordmans

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Sepus Noordmans

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Sepus Noordmans

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About the Author

Rebecca Fulleylove

Rebecca Fulleylove is a freelance writer and editor specialising in art, design and culture. She is also senior writer at Creative Review, having previously worked at Elephant, Google Arts & Culture, and It’s Nice That.

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