miffy katin sakai

dick bruna

Bruna wrote and illustrated 124 books for children over six decades, beginning with “De Appel” (“The Apple”) published in the Netherlands in 1953. The book, which tells the story of life from the perspective of an apple,has never gone out of print.

Most of Dick Bruna’s children’s books have four lines of text on every other page. The last word of the second line rhymes with the last word of the fourth line. The sentences have a pleasant cadence, which is immediately apparent when you read them out loud.

More than 85 million copies of Dick Bruna’s books have been printed over the years. The books have been translated into more than 50 languages and are read by children all over the world.

In February 2011, his books appeared in Russian (50th languauge) for the first time. This was a wish come true for Dick Bruna.

This makes the text ideal for young children, because it is pleasant on the ear and the rhyme makes it easier for children to memorise the text. Some of Dick’s books don’t have any text at all. The pictures tell the story.

the father of miffy

In 1955, the Bruna family were on holiday in the seaside village of Egmond aan Zee. Every night, Dick Bruna would tell his eldest son Sierk a bedtime story about a white bunny that lived in the garden of their holiday cottage. That white bunny inspired Miffy.

He introduced her in his second book, naming her by shortening the Dutch word for rabbit, konijntje, to Nijntje, which is what she is called in the Netherlands. Her official birthday is on June 21st and she celebrated her 65th anniversary in 2020!

miffy’s birth

Did you know that Dick Bruna drew everything by hand? He never used a computer, but drew it all himself.

He’d make pencil sketches on tracing paper, place the tracing paper on watercolour paper and transfer the lines of the drawing with a hard pencil. Bruna would use the groove to then guide his brush when painting, trimming the hairs of the brush until it had the perfect thickness.

Then, he’d draw the contours using black poster paint. He never used a ruler for straight lines. If he made a mistake, he’d start all over and keep going until it was perfect.

This is how his characteristic “shaky” lines originated. They were never smoothened, thereby adding a dynamic element to the drawings.

‘klare lijn’

“Bruna very much continues a Dutch tradition which we call the ‘klare lijn’ — you could translate it as the clear line, or you could just call it simplicity...

...He eliminates anything that’s not essential from the face of this little rabbit until it’s really reduced to the absolute minimum... And he does the same for the text of his children’s books. He uses a language that’s not simple or stupid, but he reduces to the bare essentials.”

Taco Dibbits, Director of Rijksmuseumin in Amsterdam

Whatever his characters are doing in the books, Dick Bruna always draws them looking straight at the reader. The direct gaze of Dick Bruna’s characters increases their impact, and this goes for his children’s books as well as his other designs.

first designs

Miffy (Nijntje “little rabbit” in Dutch) wasn’t supposed to be a girl from the beginning. It was when drawing the sixth book in 1970 that Bruna decided to give her a flowery dress. From 1963 onwards, when the books were first published in square format, she became the Miffy we know today, gazing confidently at the reader with her little, black eyes. She has two pointy ears and little chubby cheeks.

In “miffy’s dream” (1979) and all subsequent stories, her ears and face are slightly rounder and more balanced. Soon, her body became somewhat rounder and softer. After “miffy in the tent” (1995), her appearance remained pretty much the same until 2001, when the proportions of her head and body changed slightly, making her look more like toddler.

Dick Bruna also liked to keep his typography as simple as possible. That is why he always used a sans-serif typeface, ensuring that the letters don’t have any unnecessary curls or extensions. You won’t find any capital letters in his books and he kept punctuation to a minimum.

Dick Bruna’s earliest rectangular books, published before the square format was adopted in 1959, are now true collectors’ items! As a tribute to these first seven books (none of which will be reissued), the publishing company began numbering the square books at No. 8.

color palette

Dick Bruna used only a limted variety of colours: red, orange, yellow, blue, green and black. He occasionally used brown and grey, and used orange even more rarely.

It’s unlikely to find purple in his books, because Dick doesn’t like the color!

Dick Bruna’s books are printed in unique hues, made specially by him. For example, because Dick Bruna liked his red to be warmer than the average color, he often mixed in some orange.

He didn’t want his yellow to be too cold, so he mixed in some red to make it warmer. That’s what makes his tones so unique and recognisable for his readers!

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