As an artist I create a set of rules for myself each design, which I try to follow, but mostly break.

That observation came to me recently, while working on projects like the NN North Sea Jazz poster competition or my exploration in type and design with explicit rulesets. But it is something I have always aimed to do. In my designs I compromise between legibility and these codes.

Even with these strict designs I tend to provoke my control and let surpises take the upperhand: a small accident can create a surprising outcome. With the centimeters and pixels I come to absurdism, a theory I vow by.


For some information that is about me me.
My name is Elsa Veldhuijsen. I am an artist/designer based in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Just graduation from Graphic Design at the Willem de Kooning Academie in the previously named city. In my free time I consume fiction and non-fiction stories, make some music, play some games and once every twelve blue moons I go for a run.

What's Viskat?
The fishing cat (Prionailurus viverrinus) is a medium-sized wild cat of South and Southeast Asia. This animal is called "vissende kat" or "viskat" in Dutch, my native language. Aside from being an actual (endangered) species, the word "viskat" is also a combination between two words; "vis" (fish) and "kat" (cat).
The cat is my favourite animal, while I hate eating fish. Therefore I see the name Viskat as combining the stuff I love with stuff I dislike, creating something new.

Feel free to contact me:
viskat.zip@gmail.com