Trained as a lithographer (1918–22), he switched over to a design education at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Bielefeld till 1925. He worked as an art director in Frankfurt, Minneapolis, Lotz and Berlin. In 1930 he was appointed director of the Magdeburg Kunstgewerbeschule, before becoming head of the department of applied arts at the Krefeld Werkkunstschule. He left in 1954, to become a professor at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf. Apart from teaching, he worked for various commercial clients and designed numerous, mainly typographical posters. He was the author of many books on the Dutch design profession, co-operating with colleagues Dick Dooijes and Pieter Brattinga. Among his titles: Industrial Design in the Netherlands, 60 Plakate, 9 Holländische Grafiker, Infl uences on Dutch Graphic Design 1900–1945, The Activities of Pieter Brattinga and also Sandberg, the latter in collaboration with Ad Petersen.