(SB1) PRACTICAL RESEARCH

GF SMITH WORKSHOP

A staff from GF Smith just came in to have a talk with us. He introduced different kinds of paper stock and methods of binding and printing. I get to know a lot more about the printing process when making a printed publication. 

PRINTING METHOD 

• Foiling 

—> I was so curious about the production process of foiling therefore, I asked him about the process. It is basically heat pressing some gluey material onto a piece of paper to get the glossy effect. This makes me think of using this method for my book. What makes foiling interesting to me is that it is there, but it is not. So it actually relates to the feeling when I visited the Nunnery, behaving really calm and quiet, without any guides telling us that we should behave well. The guides were like imprinted in the place mysteriously that the moment when u get into the Nunnery area, you will suddenly become really cautious about everything. Therefore, after knowing more about foiling, I asked screen printing if they do foiling. The only foiling place in uni is the digital print room and the machine they got is not as professional. So the Noel way to get foiling down is to go to printing companies outside school. Therefore, under financial concerns, I decided to put aside the idea of foiling. 

LAYOUT

• images across two pages

—> There were many examples of printing images and text across two pages. The placements of content are not limited by the edges of pages. This makes me thinking of using this way of placing images to represent the the broad open space of the Nunnery. This can create a really spacious aesthetic throughout the pages which relates well with the structure of the Nunnery.  

PACKAGING 

• fold an A3 paper into an envelope to hold the actual book

—> I was one of the audience of reading the book and in the perspective of the audiences, this method of packaging can definitely create a sense of possession towards the book. This is a very interesting way of making audiences think that the book is precious. However is it applicable to my publication? Do I have to make audience feel that way when they read my book? Does it relate to the Nunnery? After asking myself these questions, I realised that it might not be applicable to my book.

BOUND BOOK FAIR

LAYOUT 

• Bold text on faded images 

—> I really like the aesthetic of placing bold text on faded images. The faded images underneath create an old school aesthetic, while placing bold text on top makes the design less old school. It is like a combination of contemporary and old school graphic design. However, the font of the text that they used is actually a serif font which gives a classy feeling and toned down the strong contemporary aesthetic of the bold text. However, this stye of design might look to messy for my publication which doesn’t fit in well with the spreads design. 

PRODUCTION METHOD 

• Sticking images on the pages physically 

—> This can make images look glossy as they are a completely different type of paper. Placing the glossy images into the page makes the images look high quality and stand out. I can definitely apply this onto my own book, however after thinking of the actual production process, if I stick glossy paper onto the pages, the images that lie across two pages would be folded as well and it will not work. Therefore, this method of production is abandoned. 

VILLAGE

• Sticking a cardboard on the cover after perfect binding the book

—> I have been finding ways to incorporate wood boards into my book. This method is a perfect execution for my book with a wood cover. I can perfect bind the book and stick card boards onto the front and the back. If I end up making a concertina, I will directly glue cardboards onto it on the from and the back. 

• Using elastic band to hold pages together

—> this is a smart way to bind a book without using any threads, glue or staple to force paper holding together. This is actually really applicable to my book as I didn’t want to bind my book with threads and staples to tie the idea back the Nunnery using no nails in their building process. However, I personally think that the final product will not look professional and refined if elastic band is used for binding. The pages are going to go everywhere while turning the pages and there might be a chance of breaking the paper when the elastic band is too tight. Therefore, this would be my back-up plan. 

THE HEPWORTH WAKEFIELD

I visited the Hepworth Wakefield with my friends fort the David Hockney. Didn’t expect there will be anything related to the brief, but then I found out that there are actually some art techniques that could be applied in graphic design. 

LAYOUT

There were some old newspaper about David Hockney. The typesetting of the newspaper was really packed. I also found out that the layout of newspaper back then usually got text surround images. This makes the page looks really overwhelmed, however this is a good way to squeeze in a lot of information in one single page. Also, paragraphs are placed in a box structure and this made the layout look really organised and neat. This could be applied to my city pages, where words are going to be really cramped and packed to represent the crowded city. 

BINDING

Before going into the museum, there is a small souvenir shop outside where books and some accessories were sold. I saw a hard cover book and I believe it is bonded by the method of case binding. Use binding is also one of my considerations as the book could lay flat when it is opened. However, my book might not be thick enough to be case bounded as the concept if to make it thin to represent a ‘quick’ city escape. 

PAINTING TECHNIQUE

There is this one artwork of David Hockney that I liked the most. I love the way how he incorporated his own painting with some small details of stamping. He wrote the word ‘population’, sort of rubbed the word off and used a stamp to get the number 13087 printed on top of the word. This created a really interesting contrast between the faded word and the clear numbers. Love how the outcome looks and it is a really cool way to present information that is in the same category. 

PAPER STOCK - GF SMITH

GF Smith paper was shown for us to decide on what paper to order for our book. I found out some really cool stock that actually has the texture of real wood on it. I could use it as the cover of my book if a hard cover didn’t work. It is called the GARDEN PINE and the 398 is the maximum gsm that GF Smith provides. This could be used as a back up for my book cover.