Urban Sketch Book

A portable urban style sketch book with an integral handle

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Pig 05049 by Christien Meindertsma

‘PIG 05049′ by Dutch designer Christien Meindertsma, a book documenting the products made from a pig, won the Play category of the Index Awards, which were announced yesterday.


Name of a pig whom was tagged with number 05049, was raised on a Dutch farm. And this book took her 3 years to find out where did the pig go after death. The pig was made into products and related to bullets.
Many kids nowadays have the problem even to visualise the animals, like pigs or chicken. They may just appear like a drawn picture in their mind instead of a live animal.
This is almost like a reverse analogy of what is happening to our world and addressing the the number of by-products one pig can be made into.

The aim of this book is to raise the awareness of our environment. Knowing where our primary resources come from, and hopefully, cherish them as if they are the first and the last on earth.


Her pages consist of minimium text and she emphasize on the visual statement on each page. It is also interesting to note that the visuals in the book are of 1:1 actual scale. An exhibition was also put up to publicize the idea. All the products were placed physically in a supermarket cooling fridge.

Poor Mr Pig...but its a lucky chap to have such a massive record of its after life.

Watch this video on how she and her prof talks about the project.


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Sharpe+Associates by Tom Tor

Sharpe+Associates is a packaging design for promotional mailer of 9 different photographers.

After seeing many examples of the choice of using elastic band for bind, personally I think the viewer can expect a variation of works underneath that band. It is also a good way to isolate each piece of work while viewing it, giving each piece of work an own space to breath.





However, how effective is this kind of format for a mailer? The placement of the text is beyond the band and its difficult to flip through, which might have to force the viewer to remove the band to browse through everything. It may be simple but on the other hand, taxing for the viewers to read.


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Adele Outteridge

picture source
Bus ticket book that consist of 300 journeys. Everyday objects might not mean anything when it is stand alone. but when it is bounded together, the message is strong and clear.


picture source
Steps to enlightenment.
Exploded book binding. Yes. It is still a book since the pages are "binded" together.
I think book binding itself is an art form. Putting aside the functionality and economic aspects of a "proper book" for reading, book design is a true marry of art, craft and design. The space in between is very interesting that I could imagine more paper forms on each piece of paper and sculpted into a 3 dimensional building or something like that. That division of space allow viewers to imagine and dream.

A very inspiring and power piece that opens up my mind that book binding need not be pivoted at a point.




Picture source: Keith A.Smith and Fred A. Jordan, Bookbinding for book artists, Keith Smith book, 1998, NY, p.122

Outteridge is seen here as experimenting with materials and properties of materials. And a juggle between geometry and dimension. Same goes for the one below.


Picture source: Keith A.Smith and Fred A. Jordan, Bookbinding for book artists, Keith Smith book, 1998, NY, p.108


Picture source: Keith A.Smith and Fred A. Jordan, Bookbinding for book artists, Keith Smith book, 1998, NY, p.65

Again, daily objects used to create a book.
That reminded me of the Lipton tea bag tags I have been collecting since the start of this year.
I wonder how much can one push the boundary of using daily objects to make art?


A short biography of her can be found here

If there is smoke, there is fire

Innovative concept and use of material. Overlapping methodology of the idea "edge". The edge of a book vs the edge of the matchbox.

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Bookbinding Terminology

Head: top side of the book
Tail of Foot:bottom side of the book
Spine: backside of the book; gives flexibility and support
Foredge:side of the book that opens



Text Block: pages or the inside of the book
Square: extra space around the edges of the cover; designed to protect the textblock.
End sheet, End page or Fly leaf: Sheet that attaches the text block to the cover or a sheet to cover the turnovers.
Headband: decoration and added support for the text block



Page: one side of the leaf
Leaf: Single sheet of paper or one half of a folio (equals 2 pages)
Folio: Single sheet of folded in half (equals to 4 pages)
Quarto: Single sheet folded twice(equals 8 pages)
Octavo: Single sheet folded three times (equals 16 pages)
Signature or section: Gathering of folios; a quarto or octavo


Information from book: Benjamin D. Rinehart, Creating books & Boxes. Fun and unique
approaches to Handmade structures. Quarry, 2007, Singapore

Alison Wilton

Alison Wilton, designer from US finds herself in the world of colours. Many of her works are loud and playful. "Perhaps one of the most exciting things about Allison’s passion for creation is the possibility she sees behind melding the boundaries that exist between fine art and design."
Thus, many of the books are experimental and wacky.
This book shown below is bounded by telephone wires. The book is an echo social networks online.




"Social networking sites have grown immensely in popularity in recent years. Along with growing popularity, controversy has arose as well. Concerns of privacy and the amount of personal information an individual choses to disclose are also an issue. There have been numerous incidents of violence and sexual abuse from social networking sites as well. myspace.com is a compilation of opinions and anecdotes about myspace and its recent rise in popularity."
Website

Design Project from England

Branding and promotional literature for this leading national printing specialist selling print to the creative industry.



website


Promotional desk calendar (created in
two languages) for this leading supplier of fine Italian papers – displaying week-to-view flip-up cards in a colour co-ordinated sequence.



It is a functional and appropriate use of materials to display a catalogue of papers. The defined grid and custom typeface for the calandar.

website

China book design competition- little red man story

Out of the many book designs, this design catches my instant attention. Probably due to the very bright and bold use of colours, but not forgetting how the designer managed to bring out the essence of Chinese culture to the most.

Use of red and black, resembling a "chun lian" written during Chinese New year and also through the layout, it clearly shows the connection with the "Tong Shu" 通书 that our ancestors used to refer to; to choose dates for events and to solve daily life questions. Traditional paper cut craft is seen to portray the story of little red man. The use of elaborated Kangxi binding and vertical formats for the text further heighten the essence of chinese book design to its peak.

For more information, click here

Katherina Manolessou

Illustrator Katherina Manolessou has created a number of limited edition books working with silk screen, linocut and letterpress printing. These personal projects have helped her to visually narrate stories and develop her illustration work. She finds taking charge of the whole process, from idea generation to bookbinding.



Manolessou states that 'skills in typography, design and layout are essential for an image-maker, enabling you to speak the designer/art director's language, create self-promotional material and engage in a wider variety of projects. Manolessou also collaborates on book projects with illustrator and printmaker Otto Dettmer.

I like the use of accordion binding to bring the colours of the illustration instantly to the viewer. As if presenting an overview of the narrative story in a shot.

Image from Website
Write up: Wigan, Mark. Text and Image. Singapore: AVA Publishing SA, 2008.

Lesley Moore

Lesley Moore was founded by Karin van den Brandt and Alex Clay situated in Netherlands.
From here



A very simple use of Ledger bound with flat cords for the binding. Which most probably to bring out the simplicity of the overall look of the design.




Inspiring page design, breaking the boundaries of traditional books. Reminded us about the art of origami foldings that most probably reflects the products shown in this catalogue.

Book Art

"Nowadays, book art reaches beyond the traditional ink and paper format, and incorporates a vast range of materials, techniques and methodologies... the book art genre encompasses approaches from multiple to limited edition livres d'artistes, from small press handcrafted books to book-like works of art..."

Those who have pioneered development in this field include William Morris, the Kelmscott Press, William Blake, Ambroise Vollard, the Futurists, Dadaists, Surrealists, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Sonia Delaunay, Jean Dubuffet, Fluxus, Ed Ruscha, Liliane Lijn, Dieter Roth, Sol LeWitt, Tom Philips and Rachel Whiteread.

Exploring the book as a vehicle for personal creative expression allows illustrators to investigate and integrate:

• Form and Function
  
• Content
  
• Narrative
  
• structure
  
• texture
  
• format
  
• paper
  
• engineering
  
• text, image and object relationships
  
• pacing
  
• pagination
  
• sequence
  
• juxtaposition
  
• time
  

Information from: Wigan, Mark. Text and Image. Singapore: AVA Publishing SA, 2008.

What is a book?

The term "book" may indicate,

• A collection of paper leaves bound together.
  
• A number of written or printed sheets fastened together at the back by means of some kind of cover known as binding.
  
• A literary treatise, usually written or printed in one volume, but sometimes in several volumes if forming a single work.
  
• A literary work
  
• Main parts of a literary production (e.g the Iliad consists of 24 "books")
  

The actual origin of the word "book" was from an Old English work for "beech tree", boc. The connection between "book" and "beech tree" was probably that the English monks wrote their books on white beech tablets. More probable is the following theory: Old English boc means "charter", and its plural means "tablets, writing tablets, written sheets"; hence, supposedly "book".

On the other hand, the term "book" derives from the German word Buch, meaning "beech", and is connected with the fact that, in early days, beech wood was largely used for binding books. The beechen covers "were light decorative and very carefully dried and seasoned..." (C. Davenport).

Extracted from: Diringer, David. The Book Before Printing Ancient, Medieval and Oriental. NY:Dover Publications, 1982. P.24-25.