About

Joost Grootens studied architectural design at Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam from 1990 to 1995. After completing his final project – an interactive cd-rom on the complexity of architectural representation – Grootens went on to create his own studio. Between 1995 and 2000, he completed a number of projects in the fields of architecture, interactive media and public space.

1998 marked a turning point during which he designed his first book – Metaspaces, published by Black Dog Publishers in London. Since 2000, he has almost exclusively designed books in the fields of architecture, urban space and art, specializing on atlas projects, designing both the maps and the books themselves.

Among his clients are 010 Publishers Rotterdam, Nai Publishers Rotterdam, Lars Müller Publishers Baden and Phaidon Press London.

Grootens has won numerous prizes for his designs. Among them the 2009 Rotterdam Design Prize, two Gold Medals in the ‘Schönste Bücher aus aller Welt’ (Best Book Design from all over the World) competition in Leipzig, the Dutch Design Award for Graphic Design and the Red Dot: Grand Prix editorial design.

He is a lecturer of the Master’s program at Design Academy Eindhoven. He has also lectured at various schools in the Netherlands such as Berlage Institute Rotterdam. Additionally, he has conducted workshops at institutions in England, Japan, China, Taiwan and Indonesia.

Video Dutch Profiles [link]
Video Rotterdam Designprijs [link]

[Photograph by Nico Bick]