In a world where we are inundated by constant motion—Tiktok videos, Instagram reels, YouTube shorts, influencer travel videos—there is a delicious languidness to the works of Atelier ter Bekke & Behage. Evelyn ter Bekke and Dirk Behage, partners in both work and life, form the Paris-based graphic design studio. Its body of work possesses the quiet confidence that can only be honed from strong design foundations; years of practice; and the innate ability to process, translate and communicate an idea that has the power to stay on in a consumer’s mind long after they’ve looked away.

The two warmly welcome me into their studio, a sun-drenched atelier in a quiet street just off a busy boulevard in Paris’s vibrant 11th arrondissement. At the entrance, I’m distracted by a poster of their 2012 Le Havre retrospective exhibition. Featuring the designer couple’s smiling faces, the mosaic was put together using pieces from ministeck, a children’s craft game that’s somewhat of a cross between LEGO and Tetris. They tell me that the 81,956 pieces took 30 people and 480 hours to complete. I’m bowled over by its whimsy. If this is a preview, I can’t wait for the main show.

I’m not disappointed. A collection of large-scale prints graces an entire double-height wall of their studio: type-dominated posters for La Colline, one of France’s six national theaters; season posters for Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe, each a striking splash of typography and geometric shapes; and a print featuring an oriental pastiche of dragons, tigers and waves for a Korean exhibit at the Musée National Adrien Dubouché in Limoges. Opposite the wall, a stand-alone rack displays the letters cast from porcelain molds, which, after much trial and error, ended up defining the latter’s distinctive visual identity. And in the middle of the room, two expansive desks sit side by side, commanding a generous footprint that lets the duo move between their respective workstations with ease. This space, both their creative studio and home, speaks volumes about the collaborative approach that defines their work and lives.

Educated in different art institutions in the Netherlands, ter Bekke and Behage gained foundations in strong graphic traditions and social responsibility. Growing up in their own corners of the world—she in the Netherlands, he in Paraguay—they voraciously consumed music, magazines, record sleeve covers, art and politics, forming their respective cultural references. It was in Paris that their design backgrounds, steeped in the architectural roots of Dutch design, would later merge with the French design scene.

They met when ter Bekke, newly arrived in Paris from Rotterdam, dropped by the prestigious Atelier de Création Graphique, where Behage was an associate alongside Pierre Bernard. It was the mid ’90s, a pivotal time when the digital revolution was starting to reshape the landscape of graphic design. In 1997, the two founded Atelier ter Bekke & Behage. “We started small and made a conscious design decision to keep it that way,” they say. “Smaller means it’s easier to take risks when approaching a given project and to do things you maybe wouldn’t have done if you were responsible for a larger studio.”

Most of the studio’s projects revolve around the pillars of French culture: museums, photographic art, theater, dance and cinema. In a span of 25 years, the duo has built an impressive output of posters and accompanying collaterals, all of which are documented in the 2023 monograph entitled Order / Disorder. It’s an impressive display of both restraint and freedom, filled with sketches and ideas that map the duo’s thoughtful and rigorous creative process.

Among Atelier ter Bekke & Behage’s most significant projects, its work for La Colline - Théâtre National is a shining example of its intuition for building effective institutional identities. Unlike the image-heavy theater posters that dominated the public spaces of Paris at the time, Atelier ter Bekke & Behage offered a radical departure from the norm, silently launching a subdued yet powerful revolution where trust was placed on simple orthogonal shapes, radiant tones, white space and its audience’s capacity to absorb what was in front of them. “You have to kindle a desire in the spectators to see the play, not give them the illusion that they understand it,” the designers remark. The logo was presented in a grid system, the letters mimicking the rise and fall of a slope (in French, the word colline means “hill.”) A single horizontal line anchored the logo to the page, symbolizing both stage and city. Above it, the play titles were presented in the same grid system as the logo; below, production credits and practical information; and around it, unapologetic white space. The supporting collaterals, from season brochures to theater invitations, adhered to this format. Emblazoned across the metro corridors, stripped of flashy graphics or complex imagery, the La Colline posters stood their ground against the visual and sonic noise of the Paris Metro, offering a “visual breath of fresh air” to French commuters throughout the collaboration’s entire eight-season run.

Meanwhile, in 2018, the duo embarked on creating a visual identity for Le Théâtre - Scène Nationale de Saint-Nazaire in Saint-Nazaire, France. For the project, they utilized shapes and movement related to the sea, drawing inspiration from the coastal commune’s shipbuilding and fishing traditions. Graphic elements consisted of a triangular logotype reminiscent of maritime signals and flags, and, like a compass needle, it could be rotated to fit different visual contexts. Wavy lines (tildes) represented the sea, positioned under the letters e, â, and r of the word Théâtre. Throughout the identity system, these symbols established themselves as a jump-off point for the theater’s subsequent print and brand collateral. Integrated with visuals like undulating waves, punchy shapes, raindrop-like patterns or a mesmerizing graphic born from a pencil sketch of a knot, these base elements constantly conveyed a kinetic quality. Each poster, just like the sea, was constantly in motion.

“We allow ourselves to be surprised and inspired by the diversity and variety of the subjects we work with,” says the pair when I ask about how they approach projects that challenge their aesthetic preferences. “Sometimes, you need to put yourself in just a little bit of danger to keep being challenged. You have to be open to what happens around you, keep an eye on your surroundings and let coincidences happen.” Before working with La Colline or Odéon, the designers had only faint notions of contemporary theater. This was the same case for porcelain, a material they had to familiarize themselves with when, in 2012, they were approached to design the visual identity of the Musée National Adrien Dubouché, home to a staggering collection of more than 16,000 porcelain pieces. Inspired by the aesthetic of chocolate letter molds, the studio floated the idea of creating the entire signage in porcelain—and was given a green light by the museum to do so.

“We had to plunge ourselves into that world,” the duo confirms. Working and consulting with local porcelain manufacturer Mérigous, the studio developed a unique typographic system that would become part of the museum’s DNA. Each symbol is bookmarked by a line that acts as a structural support from its top and bottom: without it, as the duo learned from the entire process, the letters would break during firing. They hand me a sample of such a piece, a portion of the letter slightly detached from the rest. I’m surprised at the object’s simultaneous heft and fragility, admiring how the traditional craft was elevated into a modern art form practically on a whim. Thirteen years later, this distinct typeface is woven into the museum’s day-to-day communications, from visitor booklets to exhibition posters and signage that directs people across the museum’s hallways and floors.

Needless to say, some projects are more challenging than others. Having completed its chapter with La Colline in 2017, the studio began a collaboration with Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe the following year. Whereas La Colline’s visual identity came together almost organically, the Odéon project needed more nurturing before finding its voice. Early in the collaboration, the posters featured text accompanied by production photographs. Despite its intent, the inclusion of the performance images failed to properly capture one’s imagination.

And so, through a series of small but significant tweaks and changes, Atelier ter Bekke & Behage worked its way toward an identity that would coherently tie the vision of the designers, theater and actors together. “Every problem has a solution; you just need to aim for an innovative solution rather than a destructive compromise,” ter Bekke and Behage say. Curiously, the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic heralded a breakthrough. Like a chef reducing a sauce to its concentrated essence, the designers distilled complex narratives into striking, pared-down colors, shapes and typography, resulting in the punchy graphics that have defined Odéon’s posters these past few years. As they say, “Time strengthens presence.”

ter Bekke and Behage work like a well-oiled machine. It’s evident in the way one picks up the sentence where the other leaves off; in the quality of work they produce; and in their sustained engagements with their clients, which often span decades. “We’ve always focused on content, on finding the right way of putting it across,” the duo says. “This means our graphic ‘signature’ is not always obvious or recognizable.”

But perhaps that’s precisely the point. Today’s design landscape celebrates personal branding and instant recognition, but ter Bekke and Behage are uninterested in taking part in any of it. Whether they’re pushing their pencils across paper or pixels across a screen, they are steadfast in their commitment to honoring content over signature, innovation over convention and lasting impact over immediate gratification. ca