FMP (BA): Prototype - French Fold & Stab Binding

I'm still trying to find alternatives to both of the bookbinding methods I had tried before (the accordion book and saddle stitch) and I had the idea of French folds in order to avoid doing double-sided printing. After a bit of research I discovered that the best binding methods for French folds are either glue, coils/wire, or stitching. 

I wouldn't really like to use coil or wire as I believe that they are not a very attractive method for binding, and there's a very "schoolish" appearance about them as I always think of the notepads I had scribbled into when I was at school. It lacks that texture that thread binding has, so I decided to investigate into what stitching methods I could use.

After much research I finally found a picture tutorial from [here] which displays a sewing method that would work well with French folds. 

http://howtopublishyourownphotographybook.com/handbinding/

I then decided to try this out myself!

Reflective & Critical Thinking

I feel that the French fold creates a more elegant appearance as it is rarely done in mass-produced books, the main reason being is that it uses a lot more paper and therefore would be more expensive and bad for the environment (if they didn't use recycled paper).

However I think that this is one of the best methods for my project because it's elegance creates a connection with the fact that it's only going to be displayed once a year at a literary festival that only literary enthusiasts would know about. So while on the one hand it would be more expensive to produce, it's only a one-time thing. In reality this method would use the same amount of paper as the accordion book. 

If I do use this method I would have to tweak my old designs slightly to create a 1cm gap from the edge of the designs as this section would disappear into the fold. This might be a problem if the binding isn't done correctly so I have to make sure that I am as accurate as possible and that the binding is quite tight. This is to prevent any white gaps from being uncovered.

Learning Outcomes:
[9] Developed their ability to work with complex material, analyse problems and identify appropriate solutions.

FMP (BA): Prototype - Accordion Book

The reason why I would want to do this "accordian" book is because it was my original plan when I had only produced 4 pages at the very beginning. I didn't think that I had the time to not only produce more designs but to turn them into double-paged spreads, so I had pushed this thought aside.

However due to my problems with double-sided printing the accordion book does sound promising as it wouldn't require for any of my designs to be printed in such a way, and could actually be printed as joined spreads and not having each side separated. It's a bit too early to make my decision just yet so I thought that the best way to decide is to actually create an accordion prototype.

The tutorial:

My "screenshots":

FMP (BA): Prototype - Saddle Stitching

Saddle Stitching

I laid out all of my test prints from Staples and cut them out with a scalpel one-by-one. As it had that problem with it being slightly off-centre I had to cut it down a bit smaller in order to trim off any white edges.

Once all of the pages were trimmed I folded each one in the middle separately. I then arranged them in the same fashion as I did previously, now that I know that my prototype I had produced much earlier had worked.

I then followed the saddle stitch binding tutorial from Sea Lemon:

My "screenshots":

FMP (BA): Prototypes

Now that I have started to consider doing the book cover design I thought that it was time to produce some rough prototypes so that I can get an idea of how I'm going to lay out my pages. If they're going to be double-sided then some of the designs would be separated onto different pages in order to look good when bound.

For my first prototype I used 6 sheets of paper, and have used the same method as my Harry Potter book in terms of what they put on the first couple of pages. Then I wrote out where all of my designs would be. I managed to have lots of spare pages so I just carried on numbering them for now.

Once done I separated them all out, and took a photo of one side of the DPS' and then another photo of the other side

APP Words: Template Prototype 2

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Even though I already have a template drawn out I would need to do it on the computer and then print it out just to double check that the dimensions are correct. This is really important because everything could go horribly wrong; it isn't ideal to produce a design if it doesn't fit on a standard travel mug size!

I scanned in my sketch and started to trace around it using the pen tool. It was nice and easy to do as it was quite a simple shape, so this didn't take long at all. I then hid the sketch layer and printed the template out to wrap it around the mug.

It didn't fit as well as I hoped, and I thought it was probably better to actually base it off the costa design.

APP Words: Template Prototype

[8] [9]

With my ideas slowly coming together I thought that it's time that I created a prototype for the travel mug design so that I wouldn't panic and leave it at the last minute. My previous projects have taught me that it wasn't only the design that was important, but the way it's presented, so I want to make sure that I can be as accurate as possible for this travel mug.

Luckily I had purchased a ceramic travel mug a couple of weeks ago to act as a mock up for my design. I had looked up at mug templates but I didn't really find an actual template I could use. Some sites provided a service where I could upload my own design, and I tried that out but it only allowed a small square space for my design.

The best thing to do was then make up my own, so I took out a tape measure and jotted down its dimensions. I then drew up my first template, cut it out, and wrapped it around the mug.

Making Prototypes - Album Sleeve

After my crit meeting with my lecturers I have decided that it would be easier and more aesthetically pleasing to come up with an album sleeve rather a CD cover that would go into a Jewel case. Because of my decision I went ahead and did a few sketches to figure out the dimensions.

This was going to be my first prototype; my dimensions were 12.7cm x 13cm x 13cm (the width for the three parts) and the height would be 13cm, with an additional 1cm for each flap on the insert section.

The paper I had used is from my sketchpad, as I want to use paper of a similar thickness for my final design. I have also taken into account that the thickness of the paper would mean that the dimensions might seem slightly smaller than usual.