One of the key points of designing this book would have to be getting in contact and visiting with Steve Roshe in Sheffield off my own back. Being able to talk with him about my ideas and getting his professional opinion on what I was doing was influential in making my design decisions for making my book. Even though my letter carving skills on that day were far from average, his input and the suggested techniques to use made the covers what they are now. The sandblasting I did for both the cover and the test pieces has opened my eyes to the resources the college has to offer and because of this they will definitely be sources I will use in the future for upcoming modules.
While I have enjoyed this project there have been various obstacles I have had to overcome to get to the final product. The main set back was being what I thought would be my final print. With both the blurred full bleed images I wasn’t aware of when making my mock ups, and the fact I was not impressed with the result of the matt paper stock used as its texture made the book look and feel cheap, it was not the quality I was looking for. The positive from this setback was it made me visit a professional print company at home which resulted in me choosing a better quality of paper for what I wanted.
While I’m happy with my outcome, if this book was to be made and produced professionally, I would have wanted to use Rockstock paper; a paper made of marble in New Zealand, as this linked in more with the content of the book. I would have loved to have used it but due to limited funds, the shipping fees were too much and they would not have got here on time. The other aspect of making the book was trying to perfect the Coptic binding method. This took a lot more attempts than I originally thought, but with the final outcome, I can confidently say it’s a method I have advanced in and would feel confident to do it again.
The main thing I would need to work on for future projects is my time management skills. At the start of my planning I was fine, but juggling different briefs as I got closer to the end of the project and trying to get bookings for different departments is something that needs working on and resulted in me not having as a completely final made outcome for the last crit with my peers.
Overall this has been the most ambiguous project I have worked on at my time at Uni and I am happy at pushing the limitations set upon us and creating something that I believe to be unique and from research hasn’t been done before, to a standard I am proud of.
I believe I achieved the goals I set for myself at the start of this brief; to create a bespoke, coffee table addition book that both designers and studios would be proud to have sitting on their desk.
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