OUGD404 Design Principles: Studio Brief 02 What is a Book?
book
Dictionary definition of a book:
noun (TEXT)
A1 [C] a written text that can be published in printed or electronic form: Have you read any good books recently?He has a new book out (= published).She wrote a book on car maintenance.
A1 [C] a written text that can be published in printed or electronic form: Have you read any good books recently?He has a new book out (= published).She wrote a book on car maintenance.
A1 [C] a set of pages that have been fastened together inside a cover to be read or written in:a hardback/paperback book I took a book with me to read on the plane.He writes all his expenses in a little book he carries with him.
[C] one of the parts that a very long book, such as the Bible, is divided into: the book of Job
In today's session we had an interesting discussion on the topic - What is a book? It was interesting discussing and thinking about what different books can be and how everyone describes them. These conversations always make me realise the different possibilities of what really things can be, and describing books as well has opened up a new perspective to me. These are some examples of what we said in the discussion:
We then were asked to bring in our books and we discussed the scale and format of each. These examples below show the different formats and styles of books. Each one has its own purpose, such as to draw, to inform and to entertain. I believe all that we looked at in our group are successful in their purposes. The books that are to be drawn in, both have a really unique aesthetic to them as they are hand crafted, and use string to bind the book together. This hand crafted affect suits the purpose as it relates to the content of the book.
In addition we had leaflets and brochures and magazines. These all conformed to their typical production as all were stapled. Probably as it is a cheap way to bind books when they are publications that are mass produced. In addition it allows the book to lay flat so the content can be clearly read and folded as often people do with magazines for examples while they read it. I brought in 'The Skinny' which was a magazine, but it had the aesthetic of a newspaper which is alternative media. The traditional, binary definition of alternative media as stated above has been expanded in the last decade. Simply comparing alternative media to the mainstream media ignores the profound effect that making media has on the makers. As producers and actors within their community, modern alternative media activists redefine their self-image, their interpretation of citizenship, and their world. Furthermore we had books bought in. These were more traditional representations of books as they had perfect, cage and flexi binding. These bindings are good to use for these types of books that inform as these binding methods are recommended for books with a large number of pages or when heavy text materials are used. Therefore it strengthens the book binding and is durable.
In today's session we had an interesting discussion on the topic - What is a book? It was interesting discussing and thinking about what different books can be and how everyone describes them. These conversations always make me realise the different possibilities of what really things can be, and describing books as well has opened up a new perspective to me. These are some examples of what we said in the discussion:
- A collection of sequential information
- A source of information
- Structure
- Arranged
- Pass on information
- Communication
- It Exists from your knowledge to exist
- Something you read
We managed to come up with a substantial list but it proved harder through to think of more ideas. When we discussed this as a group it was interesting to hear other opinions, like passing on information was an interesting topic as I thought it wouldn't necessarily be just information like story books etc, but someone stated that they think all book are informative as even in stories, you learn through the book about the characters and about the plot, which thinking about it I do now agree with. Another interesting discussion was that people considered ebooks, websites and social networking to an extent such as Twitter and Facebook, as they are a collection of information.
We then went on to discuss the purpose of books, which some examples that were said are:
- To communicate
- To express
- Share ideas
- To entertain
- To convince
- To document/archive
- To realise information
In this discussion we also talked about where books aren't necessarily to share information, as diaries are private and are there to express yourselves. Therefore I think books are multi-purpose as they are to express you privately or publicly. I also think as well that books are there to share not just information but imagination as well.Lastly, we went on to look at how a book is constructed:
Physically -
- Drafted
- Edited
- Arranged
- Proofed
- Consistency
- Authored
- Page Numbers
- Chapters
- Type Size
- Contents
- Index
- Paragraphs
Physically -
- Folded
- Bound
- Sewn
- Glued
- Stapled
- Spiral Bound
- Treasury Tags
We thought about these options and what would determine how a book is made, and found the reasons to be, the budget, the time period, the function and relating to the content of a book - for example art sketchbooks are generally spiral bound so that the pages will lye completely flat, making them easier to draw/paint on; whereas novels are sewn and bound traditionally.
We then were asked to bring in our books and we discussed the scale and format of each. These examples below show the different formats and styles of books. Each one has its own purpose, such as to draw, to inform and to entertain. I believe all that we looked at in our group are successful in their purposes. The books that are to be drawn in, both have a really unique aesthetic to them as they are hand crafted, and use string to bind the book together. This hand crafted affect suits the purpose as it relates to the content of the book.
In addition we had leaflets and brochures and magazines. These all conformed to their typical production as all were stapled. Probably as it is a cheap way to bind books when they are publications that are mass produced. In addition it allows the book to lay flat so the content can be clearly read and folded as often people do with magazines for examples while they read it. I brought in 'The Skinny' which was a magazine, but it had the aesthetic of a newspaper which is alternative media. The traditional, binary definition of alternative media as stated above has been expanded in the last decade. Simply comparing alternative media to the mainstream media ignores the profound effect that making media has on the makers. As producers and actors within their community, modern alternative media activists redefine their self-image, their interpretation of citizenship, and their world. Furthermore we had books bought in. These were more traditional representations of books as they had perfect, cage and flexi binding. These bindings are good to use for these types of books that inform as these binding methods are recommended for books with a large number of pages or when heavy text materials are used. Therefore it strengthens the book binding and is durable.
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