Anatomy of Design

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ANATOMY OF DESIGN

When is a relatively thick assemblage of bound consecutive pages printed with

type and imagery, which is usually called a book, not really a book? Well, that's

a silly question! It is always a book, though it may not be conventionally so. In

fact, many so-called contemporary books are designed to transcend the

accepted and venerated publication notions, but they are still books. This is how

Irma Boom's book/catalog (also known as a book-object) for the 2000 Storefront

Gallery exhibition of Inside Outside, the studio of progressive Dutch interior and

landscape designer Petra Blaisse, must be viewed. Despite its lack of binding

(like a turtle stripped of its shell), it still looks like a book; its pages turn like a

book, but its construction and conception—its objectness—is as unusual as the

work it is designed to showcase.

Blaisse's aptly named Inside Outside studio is devoted to producing

designs for interiors, gardens, and landscapes, and to the manipulation of

accepted relationships between inside and outside as well as the connections

among interior, architecture, and landscape. Celebrated for introducing movement

into architecture, Blaisse routinely employs dissonant combinations of colors and

forms—reflective surfaces and bright fabrics among them—with uncommon

materials. A conventional book/catalog/object could never hope to capture the

vibrancy and tactility of her work. With that foremost in mind, Boom's bookish

interpretation draws on the same spiritual and physical properties that

constitute Blaisse's more monumental design. In staying true to her precept

that convention is best served and subverted by the unexpected,

Movements is

not merely a printed record but an extension of the design experience that also

retains integrity as a veritable hand-held exhibition.

And what an interactive exhibition it is. Boom's format is a deceivingly

small for a book/catalog/object so jammed with information. Its minimalist

cover, with just a hint of hot-metal typographic kiss embossing, veils the

pyrotechnics inside.

To offset the object's Lilliputian size, Boom uses venerable low-tech

printing effects to give an illusion of multiple layers and myriad dimensions.

One of these tropes is using the paper's tactility to contrast the notion of

Inside from the Outside. When flipping the book (and the book is designed to be

flipped forward and backward), the reader sees Blaisse's interior design on

glossy paper and the word Inside on the page edges. Meanwhile, flipping in the

other direction shows exterior designs on matte paper and the word Outside on

those edges. Through variously sized punched holes and windows revealing

underneath pages,

Movements successfully highlights Blaisse's working

processes as well as snippets of blueprints, materials, and environmental

photographs. Eliminating the traditional division between interior and exterior—

as the title of the studio implies—is the central theme of this work.

As Blaisse draws inspiration from surreal and abstract art, Boom also

digs into the big closet of design for her collection of tricks. Minimalism is

nothing new, but when used to contrast the monumentality of Blaisse's work it

has elegant resonance. As with so many earlier minimalist covers, this seems

to say, “Prepare yourself for a soothing experience”—when, in fact, the interior

ride is anything but.

Movements is a visual record where words are subordinate

to the visceral experience. Those polka-dot holes sprinkled throughout are not

new to this project—and such trickery is becoming more common as books

compete with other media for attention—but they serve as a kind of

parenthetical narrative to the visual pages. Printing words on the page edges in

a reticular fashion also seems to be increasing in popularity; it is a effective

means of conveying multiple ideas, especially in a pictorial volume like this.

With the ironic exception of the spartan cover, this book/catalog/object is

notable for its lavish and intense density—for covering every inch of printed real

estate with design. Like a scrapbook on Blaisse's desk,

Movements is a testament to

how much can fit into a small space and retain a sense of elegance and proportion.

Movements: Introduction to a Working

Process

Designer: Irma Boom

2005 Movements: Introduction to a Working Process, book

d: Irma Boom

Movements: Introduction to a Working Process utilizes one-side coated paper to represent

interior and exterior, and the holes through the pages of the book allow one to peek

inside-out and outside-in.

Embossing, debossing, and varnishing on the covers

Writing on the fore-edge

Holes through the pages