De Stijl was published by the Dutch painter, designer, writer, and critic Theo van Doesburg that served to propagate the group's theories. Along with Theo van Doesburg, the group's principal members were the painters Piet Mondrian, Vilmos Huszár, and Bart van der Leck, and the architects Gerrit Rietveld, Robert van 't Hoff, and J. J. P. Oud. The artistic philosophy that formed a basis for the group's work is known as "Neoplasticism"—the new plastic art (or "Nieuwe Beelding" in Dutch). According to Theo van Doesburg in the introduction of the magazine "De Stijl" 1917 no.1, the "De Stijl"-movement was a reaction to
Bart van der Leck disagreements with Mondrian his abstract style became based on representational images. His painting Tryptich is an example, in which he transformed sketches of a mine in Spain into seemingly abstract shapes. In 1919-1920 he created the interior design for , in the Hoge Veluwe estate. The hunting lodge was designed by Hendrik Petrus Berlage. In 1930, he was commissioned by Jo de Leeuw, owner of the prestigious Dutch department store Metz & Co. to design interiors, window packaging, branding and advertising. For these print materials van der Leck developed a rectilinear, geometrically constructed alphabet. In 1941, he designed a typeface