OUGD503 - Studio Brief 02 - Final Book and Print Considerations

Despite the competition brief only asking for entrants to submit rough pencil sketches of the book cover-to-cover, including text or a clear indication of story-line as well as finished artwork for at least four of the spreads, we went above these requirements and produced a fully developed book. This was done in order to present the book in a professional way, something which judges can look at and already get an idea of how the illustrations would work as a published book situated within the marketplace.

When considering how this book would be printed we wanted to ensure that the textures would be replicated effectively. Initially, it was thought that this could be done using a glossier paper stock. However, it was found that in binding the book, some elements of the image could be distorted and lost since ink does not stick as well to such paper stocks. Therefore to ensure that none of the designs were compromised, we opted for two matte paper stocks, one more thicker for use as the cover and a thinner one for the inside pages. In doing so, this meant that the inside pages were more protected within. It was also found that using these matte stocks meant that textures were replicated better than if a glossier stock were used, since the paper is already slightly textured itself. This therefore increases the accurate visualisation of textures, something which was done purposefully for children to engage with and present to them an essence of realness and familiarity of objects.

In binding the book together, it was initially thought that this could be done by hand using a saddle stitch method, however after printing it was felt that this may not work as effectively to hold all material together due to the slightly larger format of the book. For this reason, two staples were instead used to bind the pages, each positioned on the spine at the same distance away from the outer edges of the book.