Freitag, 21. Oktober 2011

Gebastel vom Feinsten: Sarah Illenberger



Als alte NEON-Leserin kenne ich die tollen und fantasievollen Illustrationen von Sarah Illenberger schon länger. Jetzt gibt es einen Katalog von ihren Arbeiten im Gestalten Verlag, sehr sehenswert! Mein spontaner Liebling ist "ihr Berlin".

Sonntag, 9. Oktober 2011

Kristina Brusa über Irma Boom

Im Rahmen einer Analyse über die tolle Buchdesignerin Irma Boom habe ich mit Kristina Brusa ein Interview über Irma geführt. Kristinas Diplomarbeit war 2002 ein Werkkatalog für Irma Boom. Hier ist der Link zu Kristinas Seite http://kristinabrusa.com/
und hier das Interview in Englisch:

Dear Kristina, my question on you: What made you choose to make your thesis on the works of
Irma Boom ?

As Irma won the Guttenberg-price of the town Leipzig she was in town because of the exhibition and the award show. I was exalted by her work and I knew somehow that there´s going to printed e a work-catalog usually designed by the award-winner himself. Luckily Irma didn´t want to design is by herself and so I think at was at the right time at the right place with the right question and therefore I got the chance to do this project as my diploma.
Did you have a certain idea of how the work-catalog should look like or did the concept
for it came up during the process?

The concept grew during the making. I visited Irma Boom in her office in Amsterdam and she gave me a selection of 12 books of the 200 she had already designed in that time. Back in Leipzig I studies and analysed
her work for months and out of these insights I was able to work on a concept. The only brief Irma gave was that it should be a 2-splited book.
How did the cooperation between Irma and you exactly look like?
Well, at the beginning of the process I visited her in the Kerkstraat and got an idea of her and her work in the atelier, after this is was able to work the concept and the deisgn for the work-catalog out. As the 2-splited book was Irmas wish for the catalogue it was a big challenge for me to find out if we realise a 2-splited book as it comes to the binding. All about two month before my diploma I visited her again and showed her my ideas. After this we had contact via mail. I´m not really sure but I think immediately before my diploma I visited her again and the whole project was finished. After this we met time after time.
Which works of Irma do you find the most interesting and why?
I like the „Inside Outside 25% Movements“ a lot as it is made in a clever way and it transports a nice atmosphere. It contains a lot of design- and process ideas but they are working quite fine together. Then there´s the „Experiencing Europe“ as it so unspectacular in a beautiful way: tasteful and reduced. Of all the books that where published after the work-catalog I really like the „kleur“ a lot. There´s much love in it and I think the idea is super. The book „Sheila Hicks, Weaving as Metaphor“ is very coherent in form and content.
You got a lot of awards for the work-catalog, what did Irma think about the catalog?
She was also proud and thought that it was a big success.
What is typical Irma Boom in your opinion? Is it for example her free way of designing books
(like size, special paper, rough edges) or her intensively research before she starts with the
design of a book or maybe something totally different?

In former times I would have said it is the design around the book as it appears a lot in her books. But I think it´s even more than just that. It´s her virtuosic and fear free handling with the medium book. The book becomes an object. She goes deeper into the matter and the content and has got fantastic ideas, which she´s obviously able to carry her point with the client.
For my research I´m dealing with Irmas special way of designing. She´s got a big artistic
freedom with her books. In how far does her role as „the“ dutch book-designer play
a role?

She got her first reputation with the SHV holding book and has therefore a high prestige. Her wide palette of exclusive books and their quality are also reasons for her success and not necessarily her star-status. She´s a pioneer in case of book design, she doesn´t care bout conservative rules and has enticed young designers to the medium „book“, what is proved by a big mass of book designers. I think a little bit stubbornness is part of her success and also self-confidence, she works a lot and hard and her clients trust her. Without the trust and her „free hand“ or to much limits she wouldn´t accept an appointment.
Irma doesn´t have the classic relationship designer - client / she prefers to say commissioner)...
Do you see her more as a designer or a (book)artist?
As a book artist.
In an interview Irma says that a book is made to spread information? Which roles do
her books also have in your opinion( for example art-object)?

In this case does she transport a lot of information in her books thus even the object itself, the way of making, the print the binding the smell of the offset colour all these things give information beneath text and image. I would still describe her books as books because the aren´t detached from the client but the content defines and inspires the form founded by her.
The internet spreads most of todays information. How can it be that people/companies
etc still want to have a designed book by Irma Boom and that her books are even big
success?

Because a book transports feelings, because her books are all about the feel of the surface and the experience „book“, because people want to hold something in their hands and because everyone loves and wants possess nice things.
Thanks a lot!