Widely hailed as one of the world’s leading designers, Irma Boom has been making books of conceptual rigor, technical virtuosity, and material inventiveness since founding her practice in Amsterdam in 1991. Boom is the youngest laureate to receive the Gutenberg Prize for her body of work. Among her many design awards and honors is the Leipzig Book Fair’s prestigious designation of Weaving as Metaphor, a book about artist Sheila Hicks, as the “most beautiful book in the world.” Whether by expanding her role as a designer by also acting as editor or archivist, or through experiments with paper, binding, color, typography, and image, Boom’s approach consistently produces books with unique visual and tactile experiences. Her varied clientele includes museums and galleries, such as the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, the Boijmans Van Beuningen, and de Appel, as well as manufacturers and retailers like Vitra and Camper, organizations such as the United Nations and the Netherlands Architecture Institute, and design collaborations with Petra Blaisse of Inside Outside.
Part of Insights 2010 Design Lecture Series.
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