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Cityboek is an Amsterdam based publisher specializing in Architecture. Since the first publication of the best-selling “Amsterdam Canal Guide” in 1978, the list of Cityboek publications has grown to include postcards, greeting cards, posters as well as books. The original publication, the Amsterdam Canal Guide is a 365 page paperback featuring black & white hand-drawn illustrations of all the 3000 buildings lining Amsterdams four major canals. Each building is accompanyied by a short textual description. To view the buildings on the opposite side of the canal the reader turns the book upside-down. More recent publications include “De Herengracht, The Canal Belt in Color”(164 pp). Thirty meters of lavish hand-colored illustrations take the reader on an armchair tour of Amsterdam's most prestigious canal. Again, each building is accompanyied by a short textual description. A short introduction sketches the history of the canal. The entire book is bi-lingual: Dutch & English. 25 years of publishing has resulted in
an enormous stock library of illustrated and photographic material.
For the the last few years - under the motto “The Illustrated City”
- Cityboek has been exploring the use of the drawings in non-book forms.
Envisioned is a complete range of practical household/office articles
decorated with the canal houses; crockery, linen, public relations gifts,
toys, souvenirs, wall-tiles, wrapping paper, clothing, shower curtains,
and so on. 2001 saw the introduction of the duvet
bed cover on which all the canal houses lining the Singel are printed
in full-color. A canal house shower curtain is already on the drawing
board.
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Cityboek Productions
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WORK METHOD After the hand-drawn illustrations have been recorded as black & white images, they are then hand colored using watercolor paints and colored pencil. Then they are again recorded as high resolution full color illustrations. This method allows the images to be reproduced in a large variety of form, colors, and size. Click on the titles for larger images. |
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| Photographic collage of the same block taken in the summer of 2002. Nearly 50% of the facades are obscured by the foliage. | ||||
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The Manhattan Effect;
25 years in less than 2 minutes. Proof that the oldest canal in Amsterdams' famous canal belt, is a living, growing organism. Because more than 60% of the buildings along the main canals are protected by their landmark status, many people think of the canal district as an unchanging, outdoor museum. Nevertheless the buildings within the belt have grown upwards by an average of one story per century since the early 1600's. Here is an example on the Singel where 4 adjacent building (no.s 303 - 309) have each grown an extra story in just the last 25 years. In the case of number 305 (the neck-gable second from left), the original shoulder stones and top fronton have been re-mounted one story higher. The last image in the sequence is an illustration reproduced from our book published in 2000, "Het Singel; The Amstedam Canal Belt in color". |
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