'De Avonturen van Baron van Münchhausen - Zijne Wonderbaarlijke Reizen en Lotgevallen' (1928).
Sam van Vleuten Jr. was a Dutch illustrator and advertising designer. During the 1920s, he illustrated the children's picture book 'De Avonturen van Baron van Münchhausen - Zijne Wonderbaarlijke Reizen en Lotgevallen' (1928), published by Gebroeders Koster. He later became successful in the advertising industry, and was co-founder of two leading advertising agencies.
Illustrator
Samuel Cornelis van Vleuten was born in 1905 in Surabaya, East Java, at the time part of the colonial Dutch Indies (present-day Indonesia). By 1925, he lived in Bussum, The Netherlands, where he began his career as an illustrator, working for clients like the publishing house Gebroeders Koster. In 1928, he illustrated the picture story book 'De Avonturen van Baron van Münchhausen - Zijne Wonderbaarlijke Reizen en Lotgevallen', based on the 18th-century tall tales of the Baron Munchausen, written by Rudolph Erich Raspe. Van Vleuten's drawings were accompanied by text captions written by "Oom Abraham", a pen name for J.A.C. Oosterbeek. It was part of Koster's children's book collection "Geeft Kinderen Blijheid" ("Give Children Joy"), which contained similar landscape-format sequential picture books by "Oom Abraham" with illustrations by Daan Hoeksema.
Commercial art
Later in life, Van Vleuten was based in The Hague, working as a versatile commercial designer. In 1935, he won an international poster design contest. Five years later, he made a stained-glass window for the Rotterdam division of the car rental and repair agency R.A.V.E.R.O. After World War II, he made sets and characters for children's shadow shows, performed in The Hague. In addition to his talents as a designer, Van Vleuten was able to come up with "catchy" texts, making him a perfect fit for the advertising industry.
Design by Sam van Vleuten for the "Netherlands Canada Society".
Advertising designer
In 1946, Van Vleuten co-founded Libra Studio, along with fellow designer Kees van Roemburg (1914-2002). Through their agency, the two designers innovated the advertising profession with new techniques, making use of impressionistic chalk drawings, montages of abstract and figurative shapes and unusual typography. In 1954, the Libra team was joined by Han Hünd, with whom they formed the HVR agency (with the letters referring to the last names of the three founders). The company made successful campaigns for the petrol companies Esso and BP, Citroën cars, the PTT postal services, broadcasting organization AVRO and others. In the city of Rotterdam, Van Vleuten worked on assignments for the Diergaarde Blijdorp zoo and the Holland America Line.
Legacy
After a successul career in advertising design, with his firm winning several awards, Sam van Vleuten passed away in 1967 in Egmond aan den Hoef, at the age of 62. Van Vleuten's creative partner Kees van Roemburg continued to work for HVR until he sold his shares in 1976, and turned to painting. Working for the firm since the 1950s, Sam van Vleuten's son Ron van Vleuten (1930-±2015) eventually became one of HVR's directors. His grandson Peter van Vleuten is also working as a copywriter and content creator. HVR is still active in The Hague as a communications consultancy agency.
Advertisement by Sam van Vleuten for Hunter cigarettes (1951).