OUGD504 Studio Brief 3 - Binding the Book & Production Reflection

OUGD504 Studio Brief 3 - Binding the Book & Production Reflection

The final printed and bound book overall was successful and achieves my personal aims for the book. The choice of stock for the final printed version is appropriate as it creates a rustic, antique affect for the photographs which fits within the whole design aesthetic. As explanied previously, the book rum screen prints were a worry as to whether binding the book with these would work, ultimately it did work and fit well, but it isn't completely straight. It was suggested that I make and bind the book first and then screen print directly onto that - this then could of also allowed print on the spine as well. This however I felt was a risk as if the screen print didn't work out exactly how I wanted it, then it would be to late, I also learned from my peers that screen printing onto an object opposed to a flat surface can come out wonky and it would be tough to get it spot on in the right place. Therefore I went ahead with screen printing the book rum first and this I felt was a justified decision. These issues however I can reflect on, I learned while binding my book that the tutors (at Vernon Street) would probably print the cover after constructing the book and that you can print onto the spine, you would need to adjust the height action on the print bed before hand. It was also suggested while binding my book, to use different colour stock for the end pages, I decided to keep them however the same stock, and I feel that this is much more successful as a lot of antique books also kept to one stock only. 

In addition the stock I used made the book very thick, which isn't ideal for a pamphlet stitch, therefore I could consider using thinner stock but the stock I did use was most appropriate for the book. A multi-section hard case book could have worked better with the thick stock, this is something to bear in mind if I ever use thick stock like this again, but I would have to print off my pages appropriately for this, as I was unable to use that method as my pages would have been in the wrong order and have random blank pages in the middle of the book. A Japanese stab stick bound book could also have work with the thick stock, however this would not be appropriate for the correct aesthetic of the book. Moreover the edges needed to be trimmed as the thick stock meant that the pages did not align to one another, the disadvatange to this was that the space between the photograph and the edge of the page varied from page to page, so crop marks is something to consider for next time. 

Overall the book has been successful, I am very happy with the quality of the production of this book. Although there were issues, these issues have allowed me to reflect and learn from, beneficial for the future.