Lichens are subdued organisms manifesting themselves in countless shapes and colours. Besides clean air and sunlight, they only need minerals from the rock they live on. Lichens cover about six per cent of the surface of our planet. Although they are brilliant survivors and able to adapt to the most inhospitable environments, they thrive at their best, most numerous and varied in the friendlier corners of the globe.

Photographer Niek Biegman became fascinated by lichens and decided to capture them on the southern Dalmatian peninsula of Pelješac. Designer Irma Boom dissected the beautiful array of colours of the organisms, identified them and converted them into colour diagrams. ‘Boja, lichens in Dalmatia' is the result of this extraordinary process.