Siep Wijsenbeek (Rotterdam, 1938) studied industrial design at the Academy of Art in The Hague in 1958 and at the Royal College of Art in London from 1959 to 1963. Back in the Netherlands, he worked at architectural firm Van der Grinten in Amersfoort, and as an academic staff member at the Faculty of Industrial Design at the Delft University of Technology. In 1965 he also started working part-time for the Dutch Railways (NS) in Utrecht. He started to set up the company’s house style, organising the design and, once approved in 1968, he supervised the implementation of the NS house style. In addition, he was the industrial designer for their trains, buses, station interiors and so on. Because of the heavy workload for NS, he left Delft University but returned as a teacher in 1970 until 1974.
He moved to Great Britain in 1984, where he briefly worked as Director of Transport Design at Ogle Design and he started his own agency in 1986. This developed into Design Triangle, a consultancy in design, engineering and ergonomics. Design Triangle was a partnership and it quickly expanded with clients in Europe, Hong Kong, Australia, Indonesia and the US. As one of the partners, his function was gradually changing from designer into ‘Design Manager’.
After a 47-year career, he left Design Triangle in 2010 and is now retired.

Archive
The archive of Siep Wijsenbeek has been transferred to the Regionaal Historisch Centrum Eindhoven, where it is currently being made available.

Book
Droom van helderheid (‘Dream of clarity’)
Chapter 6: Klant in de trein, huisstijl en bewegwijzering bij de NS
Author Wibo Bakker, published by nai010, ISBN: 978-90-6450-753-3
www.nai010.com