Background

The place and date of his birth are unknown.

Education

Joost Elffers studied art.

Career

Joost and his collaborators Michael Schuyt and Bab Westerveld produced Cat’s Cradles and Other String Figures in 1979. They transform what might have been an ordinary book about children’s string games into a work of “anthropology,” according to Robert Fox in the Times Educational Supplement. Fox deemed Cat’s Cradles and Other String Figures to be “an unexpectedly thrilling and profound little book.” Before that Joost worked with Fred Leeman under Hidden Images.

In Textile Designs, Elffers and Susan Meller compile and organize nearly two thousand examples of textile designs, a collection spanning two centuries and several countries. The resulting book “is full of nostalgia as well as history,” and “a treasure trove for the designer,” wrote Jean Martin in the Wilson Library Bulletin. Simultaneously released by publishers in Tokyo, Cologne, Madrid, Paris, and Milan, Textile Designs “is intended as a crossover book, bridging the worlds of fashion, decoration, and fine art,” observed Robert Kushner in Art in America. Kushner praised the authors’ emphasis on the history of textile patterns. According to Kushner, since Elffers and Meller have organized their patterns according to content rather than chronology, most sections are full of surprising juxtapositions. Textile Designs is “a colorful confection” and “thoughtful and informative,” wrote Sherry Porter in the Library Journal. Kushner concluded: “I own few books that have offered me so many hours of pleasure.”

Visual pleasure was also the predominating response to Elffers’ book Play with Your Food, a collection of photographs of animals and humans created out of artfully arranged foods. New York Times Book Review contributor Sarah Ferrell called Elffers’ creations “weirdly hilarious,” stating that Play with Your Food offers “a panoply of fruits and vegetables that, with a little help, can become something quite other.” The resulting book is “a photogenic garden zoo of total, unmitigated whimsy,” wrote Alexandra Jacobs in Entertainment Weekly.

Elffers also contributed the design to Robert Greene’s The Forty-eight Laws of Power, a book that “aims to guide those who embrace power as a ruthless game,” according to a Publishers Weekly reviewer. Writing in People Weekly, Paula Chin dubbed the book a “beguiling self-help manual for control freaks.” Some reviewers seemed unsure whether to take Elffers and Greene’s advice seriously. A Kirkus Reviews contributor concluded: “If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not. it’s a brilliant satire.”

Achievements

• Joost Elffers is known as the author and artist, who has produced several books in collaboration with others, that have been recognized for their design or for their contribution to the field of design. He has initiated, created and published numerous award-winning books, including The Secret Language of Birthdays, 48 Laws of Power, Play with Your Food, and Tangram: The Ancient Chinese Shapes Game.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Secret Language of Relationships: Your Complete Personology Guide to Any Relationship with Anyone

    (From the creators of The Secret Language of Birthdays com...)

    1997
  • One Lonely Seahorse

    (In a counting book by the creators of How Are You Peeling...)

    2000
  • How Are You Peeling? 1999
  • The Secret Language of Birthdays 1994
  • Law of 48 for it is not at the mercy of power 1998

Connections

coworker:

Michael Schuyt

coworker:

Bab Westerveld

coworker:

Fred Leeman

coworker:

George R. Collins

coworker:

Annemiek Overbeek

coworker:

Gary Goldschneider

coworker:

Saxton Freymann

References

• Contemporary Authors, Vol. 184
  2000