On Wednesday, January 29, 2014, Dutch book designer Irma Boom joined designer, writer, and podcast host Debbie Millman for an on-stage conversation about her work. AIGA/NY Boom: A Conversation with Irma Boom & Debbie Millman was presented jointly by AIGA/NY and Designers & Books at Parsons Tishman Auditorium.

The conversation began with Boom’s experience in art school, where she traded a romantic dream of becoming a painter for a more tangible one of making books. “I am a graphic designer; I’m not an artist. That’s what I found out,” she said. Boom’s first job after school was at the Dutch Government Publishing and Printing Office, where she intentionally sought out projects no one else wanted to do. This approach gave her more freedom to go her own way, Boom explained, “no one looked at those jobs.”

An advertisement she designed at the Dutch Government Publishing and Printing Office garnered the attention of the Dutch Arts Council, and Boom was commissioned to design the Dutch Arts Council annual stamp yearbook. “This was the reward for all the trashy jobs I did,” said Boom. She produced a book wildly different from the traditional pieces created in the past, showing the final stamps alongside sketches and working drawings. At the time, the book was extraordinarily controversial — Boom received hate mail. Today, however, the book is rare, extraordinarily expensive, and part of the MoMA design collection.

The 2,136-page SHV Think book, is the product of five years of work, three of which was research. When Millman asked whether the three years of research became tiring, Boom seemed unfazed. She explained that she prefers being involved in every step of a book’s production, including curating and editing the content. “I don’t have clients. I have commissions,” she said.

Next, Millman and Boom turned their attention to two white books: Sheila Hicks: Weaving as Metaphor and No. 5 Culture Chanel. “Publishers hate white books because they get dirty,” said Boom. But she see a dirty book as one that has served its intended function — it has been used, loved, and read. For the Sheila Hicks monograph the expected cover choice would have been a colorful image of one of Hicks’ textiles. Instead, Boom wanted a simple cover and an enticing object. “If there were a textile on the cover, only textile people would read it. But anyone might pick this book up and think it’s an interesting object,” she explained.

The Chanel book is another sculptural object — every page is embossed, instead of printed with ink. Millman held a copy up to the audience and paged though it. “It’s not a dummy!” Millman insisted, even though it probably resembled one to those in all but the very front rows. “A lot of my books look a bit unfinished,” said Boom. “The Chanel book basically doesn’t have a real cover.” The close-up photos shown on the projector, however, revealed detailed embossing that was anything but unfinished.

Near the end of the talk, Millman produced her own copy of Colour Based on Nature, a book where the solid-color perforated pages can be torn open to reveal stunning striped patterns hidden inside. Millman asked Boom if she would do the honor of opening the pages, since she couldn’t bring herself to do so. “I always destroy books,” Boom remarked as she discarded the knife Millman had passed her and and ripped open several perforated pages with her fingers. This book, she explained, was created partly as an outlet for her own tendency to take books apart.

Boom is especially well-known for the mockups she builds as part of her design process. They reflect the extent to which the object, and not just the layout, are central to her work, and these miniatures have been displayed alongside the finished products at Boom’s recent retrospectives in Paris and Amsterdam.

The catalogs for these two recent shows (which Boom designed herself) were each produced in two sizes: for the 2010 Amsterdam show, there was an XXL version at 13.5 x 18 inches and weighing nearly 16 pounds, and a mini that measured 1.5 x 2 inches and weighed less than two ounces. For the Paris show three years later, the XXL catalog was slightly smaller and the mini slightly larger. Boom described her plan: with every show she does, the mini will grow a by 3 percent and the XXL will shrink accordingly, “and one day I’ll have a regular-size book!” she announced.

In a panel discussion with Boom during the 2012 Designers & Books Fair, Massimo Vignelli declared that “the book is dead.” Was he correct? Irma Boom certainly doesn’t think so. In fact, she believes she may never have been onstage in front of us if it weren’t for the World Wide Web. “If the internet wasn’t there,” she told us, “I wouldn’t have the urgency to make these kinds of books.”

Long live the book!

Additional Information:

Irma Boom
Book Builder: A Conversation with Irma Boom on Designers & Books
10 Books Designed by Irma Boom on Designers & Books
Debbie Millman
Design Matters, Debbie Millman’s podcast on Design Observer

Event Details:
AIGA/NY Boom: A Conversation with Irma Boom & Debbie Millman

Event Photos:

Click here to view all photos from AIGA/NY Boom: A Conversation with Irma Boom & Debbie Millman on Flickr.
 To view additional photos, or to contribute your photos, visit our AIGA New York Flickr group.

Special thanks to contributing writer Karen Vanderbilt for the AIGA/NY Boom: A Conversation with Debbie Millman event recap and photos. Karen can be found at karenvanderbilt.com, @k_vanderbilt and Studio Kudos.