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Miffy (Dick Bruna, 1955)

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Miffy is the design language Dick Bruna invented in 1955 when he drew a small rabbit called Nijntje: the most radically reduced children's illustration system ever made. A handful of flat primary blocks, one thick hand-painted outline, and an ocean of pure white. Bruna drew each shape a hundred times until only the simplest true version survived, then painted it flat and gave it room. The line does all the work; color just fills the fields behind it. One bold shape, one line, enormous white silence.

Learn more about the Miffy (Dick Bruna, 1955) style

  • OriginUtrecht, Netherlands
  • Period1955 onward; mature flat-color house style locked in by the early 1960s
  • DesignerDick Bruna · Henri Matisse · Fernand Léger · Gerrit Rietveld
  • MovementsPost-war Dutch graphic design · Late De Stijl reduction · Children's picture-book modernism · Flat-color illustration

Web examples

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Slide examples

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