Handmade Books Research

"Posted" 2009. Like memory ‘Post’ jumps back and forth and is neither a chronological report on the family nor on the decade. The artist’s jottings are preparatory notes to go with the page image. The postage stamps are indicative of the ‘through-the-post’ project and sometimes point to the specific ‘postcard’.

 

chinese star handmade book by rackycoo. beautiful use of materials and colours. each wall has a pocket with a photo.

http://www.michaelgibbs.com/books/occam/index.html a fanatastic handmade book with wonderful composition.

 

 

book made from materials we don't usually associate with reading, but they still tell a story. This book is made from shards of glass found in an ancient, seemingly bottomless trash pile next to our orchard. The glass and tin found here dates back to the 1930s. Tomson Williams has drawn branches on the glass in ink, and bound the book with clear duct tape. It measures about 4" at the widest part.

http://twokitties.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/09/debra-tomson-williams-handmade-books-from-unusual-materials.html

 

It is a handmade book made from handmade paper by Chicago artist Melissa Craig. This website (left) has fantatic handmade books aswel as the full exhibition of the mushroom books.

http://smallstudio.typepad.com/ginnycartersmallenburg/collecting/

 

Looks like a book, reminded me of the image above.

The spine is beautifully made. looks so delicate. the link has other beautiful hand made books.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/marciaz/galleries/72157623239109654

40 poems by barbara brown. an exhibition of handmade book "beyond words"

http://www.wsg-art.com/frames/frames_Apr06.html

This tiny book made by Jenny features a metal cover that has been etched, using a rubber stamp design. The amount of detail that can be seen is incredible. The pencil shown beside the book indicates how small it is.

http://www.mixedmediaart.net/mixed-media-artists/mixed-media-artist-jenny-crossley 

Interesting Stitching for the spine. shows how diverse one can be when designing the spine.

I love the look of this book. the type is carefree as well as neat on the right. the paper looks elegant and textural. overall its aestheticaly pleasing to my taste.

quirky little book with a variety of beautiful materials from lace to buttons to pins. makes me think of a tailors occupation. The website has loads of little fabric hand made books.

http://alteredbits.wordpress.com/category/handmade-booksjournals/

Campaign against dirty water- using ink and water

 

Ranking Project: Handmade Bookcover

Idea Generation

Idea Sketches for handmade book

more of a child-like take on the concept of identity

Language War Concept

Final Idea Brain Storm of Materials to use.
A jacket that represents a false strength exterior (slightly beaten), a falling apart interior.
The jacket is hanging on a barber wire hanger- caught in it/stuck.
Rocks in the pocket with text.

Finalised sketches
Materials:
Exterior: metal/tin foil with fabric pockets.
Interior: falling apart wall paper or fabric with tags
Barbed wire hanger

Prototype for handmade jacket book cover process:
Sewing the fabric together for a base jacket

Adding a button and a pocket

I used tinfoil for my exterior as the metal from the cans was too stiff and did not sit how i wished.
Also i like the idea that tinfoil gives the look of metal but its weak- representing the false exterior of the boy.

 Mock up: Handmade barbed wire, rocks falling out of the pocket with a quote on it "we are the 'Breac' people".
Interior made using paint on tissue paper- for wallpaper effect.




Final Handmade book cover:
The concept behind this piece is that the boy in this story is judged by his clothes in the outside world.
The exterior represents his false peronality or strength that he has when he goes outside-tinfoil.
The interior is made of handmade wallpaper. In the story he says "your home is your country" however he is confused about who he is and who he doesnt want to be so the wallpaper is ripped. He is searching for his home and identity.

The tags have quotes on them that i feel relate to my concept behind this book:
'We are the "breac" people' and 'your country is a place you make up in your own mind'.
I stitched each quote by hand and then stitched the tags onto the jacket

The hanger is made out of actual barbed wire as it has more strenght. The jacket is caught in the barbed wire to show how his clothes and culture are a barrier from the outside world.

I filled the pockets with rocks as he throws these in anger. One pocket has a hole and rocks have fallen out. These also have a relevant quote: "homesick people carry anger". He releases his anger through rocks when he was young and now through this book.

Ranking Project: Paperback Bookcover design

Using the body of research compiled to date, design a book cover which expresses and communicates what you understand to be the essence of your novel. The solution can be typographical or illustrative.

Concept: Identity

Thumbnails

Development of Concepts and Layouts

This concept is about the main character breaking out of his shell. His parents keep their past hidden- containing themselves in their shell. Also the mother tries to cover up the bad vibes in the house by baking cakes. The idea of the breaking shell and the egg interior coming out relate to the boys identity and him breaking free from structure.

The boys father says that the boy is a blank piece of paper where he can create himself. however this is not true as his father tells him what he can and cannot do, and who he can and cannot be. So i have taken a piece of paper with the boy writing and drawing on it and experimented folded over different areas. On the folded areas is clean paper with strong black type which represent the fathers rules and domination.

The main character is being bullied for being german and begins to call himself eichmann. So I began looking at the idea of Sleeve faces which has become a popular trend. The boy is wearing his aran jumper and lederhosen to show his confused identity.

This concept is based on the language barriers in the family. The boy is influenced by his fathers rules and draws a white line over the threshold of the kitchen and says you can only speak irish when you cross the line, However his mother can only speck german. I played around with placing the on either side of a line and i then incorporated an Irish and German style font to strengthen the concept. The english of the outside world is confined within the line- title in english.

Chosen Concepts to bring forward in photoshop

The boy is confined within the two folds in the paper. His writing is within the folds and the father outside dominating his. The bee is flying onto the fathers page to represent the Karma at the end of the book. I included a sketch at the back and the spine of the book to show how the boy is gradually rebelling against the rules.

I took the sleeve face concept and chose to remove the body completely and instead just have 3 sleeve faces to create him. The head as Hitler, the aran jumper on top, and the lederhosen on bottom. Type made of hands as he is handed these identities.

The egg shell piece on the cover with the egg spilled out over the back page as his identity.

The Irish font on the top of the line and the german on the bottom. Both are incorporated into the line.

Photography for further development of ideas...

Sleeve Face Concept

Photoshop Pieces:

Three Crit Pieces

Final Book Cover Design

Front Cover:

Title: "handwritten" font, 24pt, regular, aligned right

Author: Gills Sans, 14pt, regular, strong

Same on spine

Back Cover:

Synopsis: Gills sans, 10pt, regular, strong, 12pt leading, aligned left

Quote: Gill Sans, 10pt, light Italic, strong, 12pt leading, aligned right 

Grid taken from front cover layout