OUGD504 STUDIO BRIEF THREE - BOOK BINDING WORKSHOP

As a refresher from last year we had a book binding workshop to produce two kinds of binding methods which could be useful for the binding method for the publication.

Saddle stitch binding with a hardcover.
A five hole saddle stitch bind with a hard cover and inside cover colour pages. This was one of the binds that was produced as for the publication a possible thought for the binding method could be a stitched bind, or saddle stitch binding with a large amount of holes, to maximise the amount of thread showing, emphasising the colour of the thread. There are many possible stages that this book could be finished before it reach the stage seen now, such as when the stitching was finished, when the coloured pages were stuck to the white pages, and to create a more rugged appearance, the board that makes the hard cover could of beens tuck directly onto the coloured pages, or the white ones even, creating a more rough and ready appearance.

Front cover view.

The inside colour pages are stuck half onto the white page, so there's a small flap, and creates a neater appearance and if the pages don't fit together exactly then this isn't too much of a problem. On the coloured paper that's stuck to the cover, a sleeve could be fitted to it, adding more detail and extras depending on the level of complexity that is chosen.

Here you can see the spine of the book, where the content pages aren't actually stuck to the hardcover, it's the coloured sheets that hold everything together. 

Open book. Due to the amount of pages used, which will be the amount used in the publication for this brief, a stronger, thicker needle had to be used to make the holes, which resulted int he holes being visible when the pages open. This could be an interesting element if a more rough stye book is being produced, however if a sleeker appearance is desired, then this could pose a problem. To get around this, two smaller books could be made instead, and therefore a stronger needle wouldn't be necessary.

Closed the binding method appears neat, however there is a noticeable gap in the centre pages where it hasn't folded flat, simply due to the amount of pages in the book.

Perfect bound
This perfect bound book also has a hard cover, only with a different spine. Again there are many different stages that this book could of been finished at before reaching this stage, depending on the style of book that is desired. Examples of these stages could be without a coloured cover, just the raw board, or without coloured inside pages, a more simple effect. It could also not of have the bright yellow fabric put across the spine, as this is purely an aesthetic element.

Front cover view.

You can see the bright yellow of the spine clearly, contrasting with the purple colour. The excess buckram and coloured fabric has been cut off neatly to create a crisp edge to the book. This has to be taken great care over to ensure the cover isn't cut into.

the coloured inside paper creates a more sophisticated, polished appearance. This was stuck directly onto the cardboard using PVA glue. In commercial production however a special, much stronger adhesive would be used.

This is a close up of the spine, where you can see how the pages splay out, and have the ability to lie flat as well, which is something useful for a photography book, so you get the full impact of each photograph. Because the pages are simply stuck together using glue along the edges, this means that it is a relatively fragile book and the pages can be easily torn out. This could work positively in that if it was for a diary you could tear the pages out easily when they've been used or if something needs to be separated from it, however for a high quality book this isn't very appropriate.

Doing this book binding workshop has been very useful to refresh on the specific stages of different binding methods, and is eye opening to realise all the different variations of each binding method, which could come in useful for this brief or other publication briefs in the future. Producing books with large page numbers has also shown the limitations of each binding method, especially with saddle stitch, which is more suitable for a smaller amount of pages than what was used for this workshop, however it is useful to know the limitations, and how they vary with stock choices.