OUGD603 - Guidebook - Print and Production

In the production of this guidebook, I wanted the finished outcome to look as professional as possible, since this is a book which people would typically see within stores and on bookshelves. The idea behind the book was to also challenge the nature of a guidebook and what it can be, therefore the way in which this book has been produced is to be more of a souvenir guide and a keepsake book for people who are interested in the town and its heritage.

Based on visual research into the typical production of guidebooks, it was found that these use a variety of different paper stocks. However, Wallpaper* City Guides were found to use a more glossy stock, which is something I thought would enhance the quality feel of my guidebook as more of a souvenir item.

However, like my photography publication, I was advised against using a thin glossy stock for double-sided printing since this does not print great and makes photographs look patchy and streaky. For this reason, I chose to instead use a slightly matter stock in which the ink makes the photographs still look slightly glossy and professional, whilst the matte stock itself still related to typical guidebook production methods.

For the small inserts which will go inside the book, these were printed onto a textured brown paper stock in order to give the book an element of interaction and engagement with the reader, however continuing to reference the natural themes of the book.

Continuing to look at various guidebooks and how they have been produced, such as Wallpaper* City Guides and LostIn City Guides, it was found that these types of books also tend to use a perfect bind method since these usually have to be mass produced. In addition, I wanted to create a hardback cover for this book in order to keep it hard-wearing, sturdy and quality in its design as something which can be kept for ages and potentially passed on to people. For this, you have to first create a 'text block' which involves perfect binding the pages together first. In preparing for this then, each page had to be printed individually and placed in a 'text block' in which glue can be run over the spine to hold each page together. Since I was producing a hardback cover to go on this book, this meant the spine had to be left exposed during this process until the cover is put on.

Unfortunately, this perfect bind process did not allow me to include one of the inserts directly into the book, since this created too large of a gap within the spine due to their smaller size, which would have meant glue would have seeped through into the pages of the book and compromised the design. For this reason, it was decided to perfect bind this section separately by hand, which can then be slot into the relevant place within the book.

In producing the hardcover, it was decided to keep the design of this quite simple, utilising a dark green coloured bookbinding cloth (buckram) to match with the themes of the book being related to Garden Cities and the Arts and Crafts movement, which involved a lot of natural themes within this movement. As an additional element of decoration, however, some book binding tape was used to wrap around the cover which features one of William Morris' (an Arts and Crafts designer) pieces of works on to continue to communicate the themes of the book and make this seem like something in which people would want to keep.

A magnetic flap was also added to the cover through this process, which would hold the book together. Inside were added three small magnets to hold the book together, in order to represent the Three Magnets diagram which Ebenezer Howard used to demonstrate his vision and development for the town. In the same way, these magnets have been used in the development of this book.