Creative Book Design- ‘The power of books’ Research Points:
Research Point 1:
Explore some of the factors that are at play in shaping the future of books globally by reading Chapter 7: The Future of the Book from David Finkelstein and Alistair McCleery’s An Introduction to Book History (2005).
After reading the recommended pages, I will definitely go back and finish the book as it was very interesting.
I identified some interesting points which were thought provoking and good ideas to consider when producing work about the future of books.
I personally don’t enjoy reading digitally, I feel like it’s a chore rather than something fun. I struggle reading long amounts digitally as I feel that it strains my eyes, but with a physical book I can read for hours with no problems. There is something special about holding a book and turning the pages physically that I think will never ‘die’, which most readers I feel would agree on.
Within the passage of ‘An introduction to book history’ the decreased amount of readers (46.7% in 2002 compared to 56.9% in 1982) I initially thought wasn’t too drastic, but that was almost 20 years ago. The rate technology has improved and adapted our lives, I feel that number today must be dramatically lower. The increase in disposable time was cited as a reason, I feel like the easy access to entertainment has to be the main cause. We have access to the world in our pockets and can scroll endlessly consuming varied information from anywhere in the globe within a few seconds.
The mention of computer games being a factor, which I definitely feel especially for young boys (as they are the majority who play computer games) is a reason why they are not reading. The ease of access and instant gratification from a computer game are more appealing for young people. When I was young, computer games were new and I was allowed limited access to them, in my spare time I did other things, one being reading. I feel more grateful now that I wasn’t completely overwhelmed by games at a young age (although when I was 12-14 I would play computer games a fair amount of time and remember reading less then.)
The more conservative mindset was mentioned regarding the digitalisation and quality of books. Many great significant books have and are being produced, but I do feel that they are drowned out by more what could be considered trivial content produced by celebrities, or with a sole aim to sell. The digitisation of books or ease of publishing due to improved and accessible technology by many people allows for ‘anyone’ to write a book. This results in books of less studious, deliberate content and more that are produced solely with intent to gain profit or popularity.
Digitising books potentially allows a new audience of readers to find content they are interested in. Instead of having to physically look around a library, bookstore or online to purchase and view a book, people can read short sections or synopsises online from a broad spectrum of books, of which they can decide their preferred genre. Instead of what some people regard as trivia (for example a book by a celebrity promoted their fans) people can then enjoy reading genres they are interested in, which they may never of experienced otherwise, without the books being online.
Research Point 2:
Browse the American based Smithsonian Libraries’ Artist Book archive to identify books that you find interesting or questions the notion of the book in some way.
Explore fanzines in more depth by reading Teal Trigg’s chapter Definitions and early days (pages 6–43) from her book Fanzines: A do-it-yourself revolution (2010). This chapter is available as a course resource on the student site.
I enjoyed the short read of ‘Fanzines: A do-it-yourself revolution’ and highlighted 2 points that stood out to me and to the context of print to digital. The underground fan magazine scene has been used by people as a stepping stone onto something more established, and also the style by large companies or publications as it is so captivating. I have a few fan zines or ‘style of’ that I have collected. An example of a magazine that has taken inspiration from the fan zine culture is this nike zine by Tom Sachs which documents his design process.
The idea behind an ‘e-zine’ doesn’t appeal to me as it goes against the whole point of holding a zine made from paper, seeing it age and its texture etc. Despite an ‘e-zine’ potentially opening a subject up to a wider audience, I feel that it would lack the full affect a physical zine would.
I personally really like the more tactile aesthetic of fan zines, in particular the black and white bold designs with lots of handwritten elements. I collated a few of my favourites from the ones mentioned in the chapter. This included work by Mark Perry, Paul williams and V. Vale.
I continued to look at and save some of my favourite styles of fanzine for inspiration later in the assignment. I also looked at the few ‘fan zines’ I owned which were inspired by the style of underground fan zines.
I was particularly drawn to the tactile collage feel to these zines, including distressed/weathered looking typography and ‘cut and paste’ style collage.
