So i’m starting to think of ideas for making of the actual book part of my book. So I decided to go into the illustration studio and have a chat with Andrew and try out some book making techniques. They like the idea of the metal cover painted and holding the book in place, but are questioning how im going to hold it all together. Much like I am, hopefully more ideas will come when I make the book layout in InDesign. Anyways, made some books.
Japanese style stitching/binding.
It was really fun to make this book, I loved the hands on approach to making it, sewing it yourself and double checking everything before you do anything. It felt like year 9 textiles classes in school. I actually liked it. I did product design in school also, so i’m a huge fan of making things. This book was enjoyable to make, which makes it that much better in my opinion. Another upside to it is that the pages lay fairly flat compared to other books and binding methods. I like this also as it would show of the images in a nicer fashion rather than having to look round the spine bend (if there were images there that is).
Standard boring perfect binding book
I wanted to try it once to see the results. Turns out it’s just as underwhelming as I imagined. Took no effort to do or make. Just measure the pages, make your cover and stick it in the machine. Thats not how I imagined making a book would be. I seriously dislike this method of binding. The pages (signatures) dont open out as flat as the other, it’s no where near as personable than the stitching method and it’s really bad looking. It will fall apart if you open the pages too fast or put too much pressure on the bind. Not a fan, definitely wont be using this.
Codex binding book
This is probably my favorites of the three I made. Codex binding. In short it’s the most common binding for photobooks as the pages open up pretty flat, its stitched not glued and you can arrange the signatures in whatever way you want. This does however mean that you have to worry about the pagination – what image is going to come next essentially. This is my favorite so far. Opens up nicely, can see the images clearly and looks good.
Here is a small tutorial of how to do Codex binding: http://www.atlasquest.com/tutorials/logbooks/codex/
Out of them all, I much prefer codex binding. It’s simple, nice and opens out flat which is more flattering for the images rather than being restricted by the spine of the book holding it back. Maybe I can use this for my own book design?
