Lucien De Roeck

Lucien Theodore De Roeck (9 March 1915 – 5 March 2002) was a Belgian artist, type designer, typographer and graphic designer. He is best known for the design of Expo 58, the Brussels World's Fair in 1958.

Early life and interests Lucien De Roeck was born in Dendermonde. When he was 5, the family moved to Ixelles/Elsene, a municipality of Brussels. De Roeck was born to draw. From his earliest memories on he remembered himself drawing. He always had a sketchbook and a pencil on hand.

Expo 58

De Roeck experienced the peak of his career during the 1950s.

De Roeck received in 1960 an honorary badge as knight for the realization and success of Expo 58 from the Order of Leopold II. In 1966 he got one from the Order of Leopold.

After the 1950s In the 1960s the International Typographic Style advanced and from 1980 the digital revolution took off. This all didn't have much grip on De Roeck. He renewed himself but remained true to his own style.

Work process and aesthetics At the start of designing a poster, the sketching phase was the most important. De Roeck developed an idea which was sometimes better than the final product. He occasionally complained to his students that when he showed designs to his clients, they would have remarks on the composition or color. They often wanted details from one sketch combined with another and this led to half-hearted design, he said.

For his earliest posters, created in the thirties, he used the diagonal axis of view, typical for the idiom of that time. He also created a dynamic rhythm between text and image. He pleaded for a direct approach, a clear transmission of language on a subject that looked simple at first sight. In order to reach this, the only way was to analyze the basic elements that gave the outcome the most suitable look. The function determined the form, but he combined this with elegance. He never got rid of these ideas.

Because De Roeck had a great fondness for architecture, he worked with high precision. This was convenient when designing plans, decors and scale models. De Roeck worked in 1959 on a mobile panorama sight of Brussels in perspective and relief, commissioned by the Commissariat of Tourism. He painted large pieces of fabric with the images of Brussels buildings.

Personal life Lucien De Roeck married in 1941 to Adrienne van Emden. She studied at La Cambre as well and had a degree in weaving. His daughter Anne and his son Michel were born in 1944 and 1945. As a family they moved a few times, but stayed within the city of Elsene.

As an homage to his children he would sometimes use their names as his pseudonym. Under the pseudonym Luc Doek, De Roeck made a comic named Jef Klawieter. Later, influenced by Jijé, who he met in La Cambre, he drew Gibou. But soon after de Roeck realized that comic books aren't something for him, he had a more spontaneous way of sketching and drawing.

He was friends with other comic artists Hergé, Edgar P. Jacobs and André Franquin and made intimate portraits of them. He had the rare ability of capturing the fleeting of a model. Sometimes he wouldn't even lift his pencil from the paper. For New Year's he sent them greeting cards decorated with lyrical typography.

At his death the Fonds Lucien De Roeck was created as an archive of his work.