Book designer Irma Boom won the Johannes Vermeer Prize 2014, the state prize for the arts in the Netherlands, on the strength of her “unrivaled merits in the field of graphic design”.

This is the 6th time the Johannes Vermeer Prize is being awarded. Among earlier winners are photographer Erwin Olaf, painter Marlene Dumas and architect Rem Koolhaas. Former Dutch minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin was the jury’s chairman.

Irma Boom studied at AKI arts academy in Enschede and started her own studio in Amsterdam in 1991. In 2001 she was awarded the Gutenberg Prize in Leipzig, where she won awards several times in the international book contest Best Book Design from all over the World. Since 1988 47 of her books have been elected for the Best Dutch Book Designs. Search for Irma Boom on this webpage and her Best Dutch Book Designs of the last 7 years will appear.