‘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.