Creative Book Design- Part Two: Form and Function- Exercise 2: Paper and binding choices
Do all books keep the same paper choices throughout? What’s the relationship between the covers and the paper inside? Which books do you like the feel of, and why?
Analyse the binding style of the books you’ve collected. How does the book block adhere to the cover? How does it adhere to the spine? Is it stitched or glued? You’ll notice that in case-bound or hardback books, the sections, or signatures, are sewn together and glued to the spine. Paperback books, on the other hand, are more likely to be ’perfect-bound’, where the pages are glued together and then directly onto the covering.
I decided to continue analysing the books I had chosen from the previous exercise as I wanted to understand their designs and discuss potential reasonings for them further.
Birmingham Lockdown Stories: Jaskirt Boora
The overall book is very thin, meaning its spine is also thin. The book block is adhered to the spine with glue. The cover of the book is made from a relatively thick card with a glossy finish.
The book block appears to be just one signature which is bound directly to the outer cover. This gives the book a magazine like feel (also due to its thickness.)
Each page is of thick glossy paper with no texture to present the images as best as possible. The overall feel of this book is great and has a very premium feel, which is as intended for a book which is presenting photos.
The New Typography: Jan Tschichold
‘The New Typography’ is split up into 9 signatures which are bound by glue to the spine (perfect bound). The cover is made from a very thick glossy material, which is about 3 times as thick as the inner pages.
The way the book block was aligned with the edge of the spine was interesting to me.
The edges don’t exactly align. There is a very small space between the cover and the start of the book block. This is even larger at the side opening of the book. I hadn’t noticed this when looking into the book during the previous task. There are 2 possible reasons I can think of for doing this. The first reason is for protection. The book block is misaligned slightly in order to protect the top and bottom pages. The second is that the larger overhang at the side is for an ergonomic reason; it is easier to turn the front cover and open up the book. The overhang also gives extra space to hold onto the pages once the book is open.
The quality of this book is brilliant, this and the extra design details such as the overhanging of the cover are for a specific design interested audience, who are prepared to pay more for a very high quality book by an influential designer.
Berlin City Guide
This guide is a hardback book which is quite thin in order to be portable and used as a guide. It is a thick hardback cover with relatively thick inner pages in a matte finish.
The guide is set into 8 signatures that are bound together by glue. These signatures are then attached to the cover of the book with another separate piece of paper which is glued to the front and back cover. This was different to what I had seen previously and was very interesting. A possible reason for this, is that when the signatures are bound, they push outwards and are thicker.
This can be seen in the spine of this guide where the ends of each signature bend outwards slightly when bound. This could potentially mean that if they were perfect bound to the spine, that the book may have to be thicker. In this case as it is a guide and must be portable, the thinner the better.
Cloud Atlas: David Mitchell
‘Cloud Atlas’ is a paperback book with a glossy cover and thin textured inner pages.
The novel appears to be bound by a single very large book block, but on closer inspection it is composed of many smaller signatures. This makes the view of the book from above very ‘clean.’
The novel is quite thick, despite it having very thin pages. The typeface used within the book isn’t very large but the tracking/leading is quite distant. This book ‘feels like a novel’ due to its textured, aged and thin pages. The feeling is subjective, but anybody would recognise that this has typical structural elements that are of a story-book.
Shoe Dog: Phil Knight
‘Shoe Dog’ is a hardback book made from a very thick black card with a glossy sleeve cover. Its inner pages are very thin, textured paper.
The book block is very tightly bound together, with each signature being very thin. The block isn’t directly bound to the cover, but to a separate piece of paper which is then glued to the front and back of the book.
The cover also overhangs the book block. This again I believe is to protect the pages but I also feel that it gives the book a more premium, impressive appearance. The hardback material is very thick making the overall book quite heavy. This could be to emulate a sense of significance that the memoir holds, making the audience feel as if the book is premium and of importance.
The Magic Furnace: Marcus Chown
‘The Magic Furnace’ is a paperback book with a cover made from a thick paper with a glossy cover. The inner pages are a thin, textured paper.
The book block is bound tightly to the spine directly, and is composed of very thin signatures. The book block aligns with the cover perfectly without any overhang.
The design of this book was interesting to be as it feels like a novel, but is a non-fiction book about Physics and the origins of atoms. The style of book could just be the cheapest and best way to produce for a mass audience. Or it could be deliberate allude to a more fantastical narrative as opposed to a boring Physics book.
The paper style and quality varies between each of the books. I decided to use ‘textured’ and ‘non-textured’ as the main variable when comparing paper. This collated the information into ‘higher quality’ (non-textured) and lesser quality (textured). The category of books that had textured lesser quality paper is not necessarily what would be expected if you were told the books content and audience.
‘Cloud Atlas’ is a novel, ‘Magic furnace’ is a non-fiction book about the origins of atoms, and ‘Shoe Dog’ is a memoir. A potential reasoning for this similarity between such different books is cost. The cost of having every page of a high quality thick paper would mean that the long formatted books would be expensive, which isn’t feasible when considering their audience. This would also create very large or thick books, which cannot be portable as novels (or books read for pleasure) should be.
Each of these 3 books has a similar story-like narrative, despite them being in different formats; a novel, non-fiction, memoir. Another reason for this style of paper used could be that it emulates a feeling of ‘story’ or fantasy with the reader due to it’s old-time texture and thin material. This makes the book feel more rudimentary, but in a nice memorable way.
The non-textured paper group of books all have a similar theme of conveying information. They each do this through imagery and text. This is very interesting as none of the textured books contain imagery, and are all of the same paper quality.
‘The New Typography’ and ‘Birmingham Lockdown Stories’ are artistic and ‘pieces of art’ in themselves. This means that they should be made of high quality paper in order to convey this feeling. ‘Birmingham Lockdown stories’ could be a hardback quality photo book, but this would’ve increased the price dramatically, potentially being off putting to the audience as the photographer is less known.
The way the books are bound is dependant on elements such as; its cost, size, ideas it is trying to emulate and its audience. When looking at how each book was bound, I noticed that some were bound directly to the spine, and others were not.
‘Birmingham Lockdown Stories’ is a photo-book documenting short stories of people through the lockdown during the Corona virus pandemic. The magazine style of book is a main factor for it being bound to the spine directly. The single signature is bound by glue. The overall feel of the book is quality, but it would have been cheaper using a paperback cover than a hardback which would’ve made the photo-book more premium.
‘The New Typography’ is a high quality book but it’s signatures also also bound directly to the spine. This makes me feel as if it is less about quality, but possibly about ergonomics and style. All 4 books that were bound this way (‘Cloud Atlas’ and ‘Magic Furnace’ included). They were relatively thin and paperback, which makes me think that a reason for being bound differently is just to hold structure or fit within the spine correctly without being too large.
The 2 books that were bound to a separate piece of paper, which was then bound to the front and back covers were ‘Shoe Dog’ and the ‘Berlin Guide’. Despite the ‘Berlin Guide’ being thin, it is a hardback, weighted and full of thicker paper, including a map that extends from the front pages. This would mean that it could be less rigid by not being bound directly to the spine.
Sections of the front covers on some of the books overhang the book block. I found looking at this interesting in comparison with which were bound to the spine or not. The unbound books overhang the book block, which makes sense when thinking of them being more robust etc.
‘Berlin Guide’ overhangs all the way around the book the same distance. A reason for this could be that it works well ergonomically, making it easier to open the guide. When you open the guide the 2 most needed elements are at the front and the back of the book; the pouch which you can use to hold items and the map. The overhang also protects the inner pages as the guide is taken around with someone, thrown into bags and moved around a lot, which could potentially cause damage to the pages.
‘Shoe Dog’ is designed similarly, overhanging the same amount around the edge. I feel as if this is to exaggerate how important or real the information is within the book. Nike is a globally known brand, despite it not being a ‘high end’ brand, it is premium clothing and wants to uphold its perceptions of being well made and desirable. Phil Knight’s memoir is almost an extension to the brand, it being founded by him, therefore it must have an important premium feel.
‘The New Typography’ overhangs mainly at the side where you can open the book. Due to this book being made including Tschichold’s work targeted at an audience interested in design, this small element of how the book is made physically is an extension to Tschichold’s functional design.
The 3 books that do not overhang all have one common theme and that is story telling. Despite ‘The Magic Furnace’ being a book about Physics it appears ‘novel-like’ physically. The designs are also paperback, meaning that it would be cheaper to have a ‘standard’ design when producing for larger audiences.
The 3 that do overhang are of high quality and made for certain groups or niche’s. Despite Nike being a huge brand, people who want to read more about it must be relatively invested in the brand emotionally, or curious enough to care. ‘The New Typography’ is for people interested in design and ‘Berlin Guide’ is for people travelling around Berlin. Perhaps this means that they are more inclined to be of a higher quality as they know they are desirable books.
