Jac Nuiver
Dutch, 1892 – 1953
Follow
Jacob Nuiver was a Dutch graphic designer, illustrator, and book designer.
Nuiver was the son of Jacob Nuiver and Zwaantje Sloterbeek. His father earned a living as a bookbinder. Jacob's mother died when he was eleven years old. The family's financial situation may have been one of the reasons why Jacob started working as an apprentice at the Casparie book and lithography printing company in Groningen at the age of 14. He worked there for five years to great satisfaction, as stated in his certificate. In the evenings, he studied at the Minerva Academy for Visual and Applied Arts in Groningen, where, according to the diploma awarded in 1911, he attended classes with great success.
At the age of nineteen, Jacob Nuiver moved to Amsterdam, where he continued his career at a series of lithographic printing companies, including Gebroeders Braakensiek and Van Leer & Co. He then worked at the Topographical Service in the Dutch East Indies from 1919 to 1921. At Van Leer, he had the opportunity to thoroughly learn reproduction techniques, while Blikman & Sartorius gave him insight into bookbinding, letterpress printing, and lithography. In the meantime, he took lessons in his spare time from André Vlaanderen, who taught him the basics of graphic design. At the end of 1919, Nuiver left for the East. After a year, he resigned with honors and settled in Batavia as an independent graphic designer. Despite the many commissions he received, he decided to return to the Netherlands after six months due to the climate.
In 1922, Nuiver married Christina Johanna Dijkhoffz. The couple settled at Keizersgracht 1-II in Amsterdam. They had two children, Jan Alexander in 1924 and Jacob Herman in 1928. From his return from the Dutch East Indies in 1921 until April 1929, Nuiver worked as a freelance graphic designer.
In April 1929, the Nuiver family moved to Eindhoven, where Nuiver joined the Artistic Propaganda department at Philips. However, he continued to work as a freelance designer alongside his job at Philips. In April 1932, he left Philips and resumed his work as a freelancer in Amsterdam. He also continued to work for Philips in Amsterdam.
Nuiver advertised his company in various ways. He apparently had a good relationship with the magazine De Reclame, because in September 1932 there was an exhibition of his graphic work in the showroom of the Levisson printing company (the house printer of De Reclame) in The Hague.
In 1932, he also became a designer at paper wholesaler P. Proost & Zoon in Amsterdam. After a few years, this became a full-time position, which was later converted to a part-time job. His partial connection with Proost continued both during and after the war. He then worked for various publishers as a book cover designer. From that time until around 1944, he designed around a hundred book covers. Partly due to the hardships of the war years (1940-1945), his health gradually declined in the early 1950s. Nuiver was a versatile craftsman: an imaginative designer and copywriter, but also an illustrator, layout artist, poster artist, and figure draughtsman.
