Hansje van Halem balances between typography and optical illusion

It’s tricky to implement the intricate tricks of an optical illusion in a book cover design without the finished product appearing slightly heavy-handed, but designer Hansje van Halem does it with poise and perfectionism. She’s worked as a freelance graphic designer since graduating from Amsterdam’s Gerrit Rietvield Academie in 2003 (as her About section explains) and her enjoyment of what others might find to be repetitive shines through in the illusory patterns in her portfolio.

Embracing curved lines and contrasting colours as openly as she does perpendicular lines and psychedelic colour palettes, Hansje works both digitally and by hand to create her designs, even creating a book containing over a decade’s worth of sketches, structures, letters and rejected ideas in the process. Her work is impressive in its continuity, unconcerned about following a well-established path where others might chase the new, and for that we can’t help but praise her. After all, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.