OUGD504 STUDIO BRIEF THREE - FINAL PUBLICATION

Issues
Front cover
With the publication being quite large combined with a saddle stitch binding, there was quite a large amount of oversplay, which if cut off would result in content possibly being cut off or appearing too close to the edge of the page. When printing off the final publication it was printed off in two booklets to avoid this oversplay issue. However when printing it off this way, the front cover wasn't thought about, as to how it would attach to the two booklets. For the front cover to attach to the two booklets, it would have to be printed within the booklets themselves, rather than stuck or folded over like a case. This therefore posed an issue for the final book, that it had no front cover. Luckily, when setting out the layout of the book, the front and back inner pages were left blank, which meant that if a belly band was placed around the book, this could form the front cover with the title on. Originally the belly band was to be printed on G F Smith Plike white stock and foiled all the text, however with this new front cover, a white belly band would produce a very plain, neutral front cover, more colour was necessary. So G F Smith Colourplan stock was used in a green shade, with the title simply printed onto it, which still added the green to the front cover as was initially intended, but only on a smaller amount.
Stock
Initially a lightweight recycled stock was intended, with vegetation and texture slightly shown subtly, however this stock proved impossible to find on budget. Test prints were produced on G F Smith's Gmund Bier Weizen stock, which is produced using beer, and has a speckled appearance similar to what was initially intended. This stock choice is shown in previous test prints and experiments. However due to this stock only being attained through samples, to actually purchase the stock, it would have to be purchased in much larger quantity than was needed, and was beyond the price point for this brief as well. Therefore an alternative stock had to be used, in this case natural sugar paper from the college library, as this was extremely affordable and had a slight texture to it as well.

Final publication photographs:

Front cover. 

In this close up you can see the belly band wrapping around the bound publication.

Binding method shown clearly. Because this was a new binding method for me, binding each individual book and then them both together, there is some give in the bind so the two books are moveable, which isn't ideal, but this would only be improved with practice. Brown thread was used to hint at a natural, environmental appearance, rather than looking clean and immaculate.

Open page.

Due to the binding of the publication in two books, this has resulted in it opening flat a lot easier, especially in the centre of the publication. This is a common feature of photography books so you can see the photographs as clearly as possible, so this is a positive thing that the publication opens flat.

This brief has posed many challenges throughout, specifically the production of it, most of which could be resolved by noting down the problems after each discovery, and finding out how they can be fixed, and any problems these fixes may pose, and then producing it again until it is correct. However because I didn't logically think about how to resolve the problems, specifically with production, without causing more problems, this resulted in lots of nearly final publications being printed costing a lot of money and taking up unnecessary time. This is something that should be improved for the next brief, and especially the next publication brief, to ensure time and resources aren't wasted.