Joost Grootens: More Matter with Less Art

In this age of a super-abundance of information, on the Internet, for example, there is a need of formats that can clearly present enormous quantities of information and subsequently make it manageable. The atlas is a good example of such a format. The work of Studio Joost Grootens explores the atlas format, its meaning in the digital age and its application to disclose maps and non-cartographic subjects.

Joost Grootens is a graphic designer, researcher and educator. His studio SJG designs books, maps, typefaces, spatial installations and digital information environments for publishers like Lars Müller Publishers, nai010 publishers, Park Books, Phaidon Press; educational and research instituties like ETH Zürich, Future Cities Laboratory Singapore, KADK Copenhagen, TU Delft; and museums such as Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum Rotterdam, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and Van Abbemuseum Eindhoven. A monograph about SJG’s work titled ‘I swear I use no art at all’ was published by 010 Publishers in 2010. Joost Grootens leads the masters programme Information Design at Design Academy Eindhoven, and is a mapping tutor at KADK Copenhagen and Professor Information Architecture at ISIA Urbino. Since 2015 Joost Grootens is PhD candidate at Leiden University researching the blurring of the maker-user divide in current map making practices