Robert Deodaat Emile “Ootje” Oxenaar

Robert Deodaat Emile “Ootje” Oxenaar was born in The Hague in 1929. He began his studies at the Royal Academy of Art in 1947 and graduated with honors in 1953. He designed books for Dutch publishers including Van Goor and Boucher, with his illustrations for Gargantua , 196, reflecting the narrative realism of his teacher Willem Rozendaal, who encouraged close reading and cultural engagement through design. In 1958 he returned to the Royal Academy as a lecturer and taught there until 1970. From 1978 to 1992 he was professor of visual communication at Delft University of Technology. In 1970 he joined the Dutch postal service PTT as deputy head of the design bureau and was appointed head of the department in 1976. He led DEV until 1994. In 2000 he moved to the United States and taught in the graphic design department at the Rhode Island School of Design.

Oxenaar believed public design should do more than meet institutional requirements. He saw it as a platform for experimentation and critical thinking, where visual systems could introduce clarity, precision, and surprise into everyday life. Between 1964 and 1987, he designed two full series of banknotes for De Nederlandsche Bank. The first featured historical figures, while the second broke with tradition. The Snip (ƒ100), Sunflower (ƒ50), and Lighthouse (ƒ250) introduced bold color, abstraction, and integrated security features including dry offset gradients, OCR-B, vector plotting, and microprinting. He insisted on beginning with the visual structure, then adapting the technical requirements to fit the design. He brought this same approach to his stamp work, which began in 1963 and continued into the 1990s, and to official documents including payment cards and cheques. As head of DEV, he created space for designers to work independently, supporting figures including Peter Struycken, Gert Dumbar, Walter Nikkels, and Irma Boom. The studio operated without rigid hierarchy and became a model for how public design could be shaped through dialogue and long-term vision.

His work is held in the collections of the Stedelijk Museum, Centre Pompidou, Museum of Modern Art, and the Nederlands Archief Grafisch Ontwerpers. In 1987 he received the H.N. Werkman Prize and later the Osaka International Design Award. He was a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale from 1964 and an honorary member of the Association of Dutch Designers. In 2004 he was awarded the Medal of Honour for Art and Science in the House Order of Orange by Queen Beatrix. His life and work are the subject of RDE Oxenaar: Designer and Commissioner, published by 010 in 2011. He passed away in 2017. The Oxenaar Design Association was founded in his memory to support excellence in public design and design education.