The De Stijl (The Style) movement, was founded in 1917 by Theo Van Doesburg in Amsterdam. The movement was based on the principles of promoting abstraction and universality by reducing excessive elements down to the essentials of form and color. Dutch design generally has shown a preference for simple materials and construction, but De Stijl artists, architects, and designers strove to combine these elements to create a new visual culture. Characteristics of furniture from this movement include: simplified geometry of vertical and horizontal compositions and pure primary colors and black and white. It was the rejection of the decorative excesses from Art Nouveau, and promoted logicality through construction and function. Influential artists from this movement include Gerrit Rietveld, Piet Mondrian, and Mies van der Rohe, who continued to evolve the ideas of modernist design