Bookbinding 101

A set of British cigarette trade cards (circa 1922-1939) on mending old books from the George Arents collection at the New York Public Library. They should have published a set of cards on how to conserve books with that stale smell of cigarette smoke ; )

BIOgraphy of a Book

Sarah Bryant, of the Big Jump Press in Aurora, NY has been receiving all sorts of honors for her new book, Biography. Already she has received the award for Artistic Excellence at the Pyramid Atlantic Book Arts Fair this past November and most recently, the top MCBA Prize from the Minnesota Center for Book Arts last month.

      In her book Biography, Bryant has performed a sort of a visual information graphic in a narrative form that tells the story of our chemical make-up by way of the Table of Periodic Elements. She describes it as "an examination of the chemical elements in the human body and the roles they play elsewhere in the world. This book grew out of my desire to use the periodic table, our visual method of categorizing every particle of matter in the universe, as a tool for creating a portrait of a human being." Each element in Biography is identified as a specific colored rectangle and these rectangles gradually reoccur in diagrams which describe what we are made of, what we are similar to and where we originate. As her book progresses, it becomes apparent that these same elements are also in everything we make including weaponry, medicines, and tools. The diagrams are somewhat difficult to decode as the book continues, until the many colors fade and are interrupted by blind embossed organic shapes near the end. 

      Biography was letterpress printed in 2010 with polymer plates on Zerkall paper. It is bound as a hard cover drumleaf binding and enclosed in a clamshell box in an edition of 75. Numbers 1 through 10 are available as a deluxe edition which you can see below. I had an opportunity to view this book last Fall and it blew me away. Not only did Bryant do a masterful job of printing and binding, but her concept, typography and design are very thoughtfully produced. I suspect there will be many more honors in her future. Look for more information about Sarah Bryant and Biography at Big Jump Press or at Vamp & Tramp Booksellers. You might also enjoy visiting the MCBA site which has posted an online gallery featuring many of the other entries and the other finalists in their recent juried competition. 

Student Scholarship Winners!

Bookbuilders West, a non-profit organization for publishing professionals based in San Francisco just announced this year's scholarship awards for student book designs which are submitted from eligible students across 13 Western states. My students Joe Uccello and Kevin Cox took top prizes. Joe takes home the grand prize of $1000 for his H.P. Lovecraft book Pilgrimage to Azothoth, to cap the winning streak of 5 years in a row for my book design course (aka Typography III) at the Seattle Central Creative Academy. It is indeed a well-deserved honor for both of these guys. Kevin took the honorary Steve Rennick memorial award of $500 for his book The Call of Cthulhu. Interestingly, this is sort of a "Lovecraft Fest" as both of these books are make-overs of two H.P. Lovecraft texts, but their interpretations are very diverse. I couldn't be more proud of each of them for their impressive efforts. An evening reception will be held in San Francisco in honor of all 5 of the award recipients later next month.
       Both recent graduates are very diligent workers and comprehend the rewards of fine typographic etiquette as it applies to books. Joe is probably the most passionate book design and typography student I have had in my 6 years of teaching this course and the only student who came to me with intentions of self-publishing his book project. His intentions are to continue self-publishing books under his own press name of The Viatorium Press and to pursue other print and ePub work in the book design industry. I originally wrote a feature on Joe's book earlier this month, just after he showed me a completed edition of it. He began concepting this book long before my class last Fall, and it proved to be a pilgrimage to the end. Originally he wanted it to be a landscape format as it felt more like a travel journal or guide one would take on a long journey. Many variations of it were made before deciding upon the small, portrait format that fits nicely in the hand. In the end, he had the first 2 copies in his edition of 46 books (Lovecraft lived only to age 46) bound in black goat skin with red inlay on the spine and gold foil stamped on 3 sides. Sewn into the front matter, is an 11x19" letterpressed folding plate he printed on Rives paper explaining the eight kufic designs he illustrated for each station of the pilgrimage. As Lovecraft's writings are in the public domain, Joe intends to eventually sell copies of this edition on his website here.

Kevin is a very self-motivated and assured young designer with excellent typography and technical skills and needs little guidance. His design and illustrations for Cthulhu took shape very quickly. His only regret was being unable to stain the head, foot, and fore edge pages of his book black, but he was pressed for time. Even without, his book is a remarkable study in black and white and it's a deserving choice for the Steve Rennick memorial award, named after the highly regarded book designer formerly at the University of California Press.
       My apologies for some redundancy of photos in recent posts, but I'm dang proud of these guys—and all of my students who struggled so hard to get this far. Once again, my sincere gratitude goes out to InDesign teacher Chris Sullivan for his tireless instruction, to illustration instructor Claire Cowie for her thoughtful guidance and to Bonnie Thompson Norman for her bookbinding direction. And thank you to all of the volunteers and supporters at Bookbuilders West for organizing such a meaningful event. Books can and do change lives.

Student Book Reports Part 2

This H.P. Lovecraft book, Pilgrimage to Azathoth was designed by my student Joe Uccello. I first met Joe about 2 years ago at our annual graduate's Portfolio Show which coincidentally happens again today. Joe was a Publishing Arts student at our school at the time and was interested in letterpress printing, typography and book design. Weeks earlier, the school administrators announced they were eliminating the 2nd year of Publishing Arts program because of budget cuts which prevented him from completing his degree. Discouraged, he hoped to transfer to our two year graphic design program which I encouraged him to do, especially after he showed me the copy of Jost Hochuli's book, Detail in Typography he was carrying in a pocket of his pant legs. He said he considered this and Robert Bringhurst's book, Elements of Typographic Style, his two favorite typography references. 

      The text of the Azathoth book you see above is the only surviving work from an incomplete collection of stories which Lovecraft intended to publish. The goal of this book, Uccello writes, "was to complete the novel Lovecraft planned by using disparate, yet thematically related stories from the author's body of work, the whole to be disguised within the structure of a pilgrimage, a record of a mystical journey...".

      The interior text pages were printed on a laserprinter and includes an 11x19" letterpressed folding plate printed on Rives paper sewn into the front matter of the book. This folded plate explains each of the marks he illustrated to portray the stations of the pilgrimage. The main text font is Stern Pro, the only font issued digitally and in metal simultaneously, by the recently passed master font designer and printer Jim Rimmer, and he created it in memory of Washington State printer Chris Stern. In addition, Joe had some of the text translated to Arabic and mirrored it to the text on the contents page and chapter ends. He claims "the Arabic font was chosen for its inspiration in ancient Kufic writing forms, as it references Lovecraft's mingling of Arabic lore and legend".  

     The black leather binding with a red inlay on the spine was art directed by Joe and bound by Ars Obscura Bookbinding in Seattle. It also includes gold foil stamping on the front and back cover and the spine. The full edition will be 46 books, which is how old Lovecraft was when he died. These books will eventually be for sale at Joe Uccello's website. 

      Now, two years later, Joe graduates this week with more passion and enthusiasm than ever about carving out a career in book design. Although he has been absorbed with several of H.P. Lovecraft's works this past year and is now working on a likeness of a 16th century codex to be released this Fall, he is also eager to learn more about the mechanics of eBook publishing. No doubt he will. 

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The next student work belongs to Rebecca Shapiro who, along with Joe, I have acknowledged earlier in this space. Rebecca is a former English major and another who has the passion for the book. She is a big fan of the work of Jorge Luis Borges and chose his work The Garden of Forking Paths as her choice to redesign. It is a collection of short fiction currently available as the first half of the collection Ficciones. Most of these stories are about the nature of writing and books. 

     Rebecca's illustrations are photographs of dioramas made from hollowed books that reflect some nature of the story they accompany. She claims "the tone of the book is studious and mysterious; it stresses curiosity about language and the world. It aims to push the imagination and especially the tools we use to describe the imagination. It is incredibly beautiful and elegant, each word placed with precision. The typography and design must reflect this solemnity and beauty". I think she has nicely achieved this.

Below are 3 book cover designs Rebecca chose to create entirely on her own. She wanted to include more examples of cover designs in her portfolio and determined a series would be better than just one. 

This last cover design of Rebecca's seen below was inspired by a challenge Penguin Books presented to design students this past Spring. They had a call for entries to design One Hundred Years of Solitude and the winner was to receive £1000 and a 6 week internship at Penguin Books in the UK. Sadly, her busy school schedule did not permit her to produce this design before the due date. Had I seen it earlier, I might have counseled her to scrap the schoolwork, as I believe this one would have been a great contender. Someone hire this girl!

Bookbinding of Every Description

Peculiar advertising trade card for bookbinder, by F.Todd, 1881.

Someone missed the memo on branding. 

:: Via Jim C. Kuhn

Robot Love

Susumu Eguchi poster for a children's science exhibition in the Tobu department store. From 1969/70 Graphis Annual. 

:: Via Sandi Vincent

Wonderful typographic robot illustration from Leanda Xavian. 

:: Via One Little Bird. 

Ubu Roi: Drame en Cinq Actes. 1982 binding by Georges Leroux, one of the most important French binders of the 20th century. One of 150 copies. The binding is of full vermillion calf featuring relief figures on both panels—the front cover depicting Father Ubu, whose eyes appear to be spinning in his head, the back cover showing Mother Ubu. Both figures have been modeled after 1950-style Japanese robots, and here Leroux has incorporated a series of real gears and clock wheels in the chest cavities of both figures, as well as multi-colored wires, metal widgets, sheet plastic, and marbles. Accompanied by a reproduction tin toy robot very similar in appearance to the ones on which the binding design is based. The Chief Robotman toy is battery powered and in perfect working condition in its original box, which bears a 1950s-style illustration with laser beams shooting out of the robot's eyes. Available from Bromer Booksellers. $50,000. No kidding.