Two years ago Irma Boom created a fat cahier by getting the binder to drive his needles through 232 pages. Could it be that at the Arnhem academy it occurred to them that they could do it even better? Be that as it may, the Arnhem graduation catalogue brings us no fewer than 328 pages, and they are all held together by just two staples. The result is an object with an elegant curve in the spine and a dynamic arrow shape on the fore-edge. It is almost an emblem, conveying the vibe of the whole academy. It put a smile on the judges’ collective face.

Instead of having the pages numbered 1-328, the book has 164 pages with increasing numbers followed by 164 with decreasing numbers. The students’ work has been collected at the front and their portraits at the back. This way each student’s work and photograph are linked by having the same page number.

Each of the academy’s departments is displayed differently, so that we have work framed (product design, graphic design), bled off (fashion) and full spread (interactive). In the portraits we see black-and-white photos (teacher training), bled (fashion) and bled crops (graphic design). Particularly ingenious are the portraits of the boys and girls at Visual Arts, who are accommodated spread-wide at the heart of the book, with their signatures over their lower torso. Lecturer lists, addresses etc. – it has all found a logical place. 

And the corset was not too tight to allow a moment’s pause for the death of legendary senior lecturer Elly Lamaker.