Jeanette Abbink designer, creative director

There are so many designs that I treasure. It’s hard to choose just one! But if I had to make a selection I would pick Armin Hofmann’s 1959 poster for the ballet Giselle. My husband and I have a copy hanging in our home, and I seriously marvel at it every day. It’s one of our prize possessions. One summer I had the wonderful privilege of studying graphic design with Mr. Hofmann in Ticino, Switzerland. Sometimes I hear his voice when I look at the poster.

Viewing this piece, I feel a sense of calm wash over me that’s similar to gazing at the ocean. It’s a perfect state of dynamic balance, grace and soulfulness printed in black and white. I love the white vertical typographic title, the dot of the “i” just lifting — or springing — away from the other letterforms and how the blurring halftone of the dancer’s pirouette is a perfect state of rational beauty. It’s a masterpiece.

Jeanette Abbink is creative director and founder of Rational Beauty. Recent projects include the design for Things We Love, a coffee table book about Kate Spade New York, catalogue design for Anthropologie, and newspaper redesign of USA Today with Wolff-Olins. She is the former creative director of the magazines Dwell and American Craft.