These images are a timeline of how I made the prototype for my book. I started creating my book on March 25th and I finished making it on April 1st (exactly 1 week). I have mainly been working on Adobe Illustrator for this project, but when I am making the final layout for this book I will be using Indesign to compile all of my graphics during this project.
This book will hopefully become a full design guide for Helsinki City Trams to follow. I decided to make a physical design guide for this rebranding because I was interested by the works of Standards Manuals (publishing company), I also find the designers such as Paul Rand are more easily understood by their clients by providing them a physical book to present their designs.
Apon completion my design guide will cover the new company rebranding for the Helsinki Tram Network renamed Helsinki City Trams (HCT). This will include a new logo, colour scheme and advertisement campaign. The next part of the rebranding will include my new custom typeface and will break down how I created it. The last part is an updated map for the tram network.
Making the book block
I started off by making my book block by cutting up some sketching paper. I worked using 14x28cm pieces of paper when they are folded into signatures the block will be 14x14cm.
Each signature contains 4 folded pieces of paper which will total 8 pages. I sewed the signatures together, all together I had 4 signatures.
Glueing the spine
I glued on the spine of the book, the spine cloth is meant to hold togther the stitching on my book block and allow flexibility whilst terning the pages and not damaging the stitching. To let the binding dry and to compress the pages I put the block into a press overnight.
Making the Hard cover
To create my hardcover I measured the book block and made the book a centimetre larger on every side of the block. I used some card and marked the size using a pencil. I then used a ruler as a straight edge to cut the card, I used a crafting knife (scalple) to cut it.
I used a piece of calico fabric for the cover material. I then glued the card to the fabric and cut the fabric an inch from the outside and cut the corners off so the corners wouldn’t overlap and bunch up. My last step was to glue the end pages and put it all in the press.
I was supposed to leave the book in the press for at least a day but I made it on the last day of the term which meant I’d have to leave it in the workshop for two weeks. I didn’t want to leave my prototype in there for that long so I took it out after a couple of hours, overtime the glue dried but the hardcover of the book was slightly warped. This is fine because it is only a prototype but overall this experiment was quite lengthy, especially if I had to make the entire layout and account for signatures.
Overall I am very proud of this experiment I will carry on planning how to improve the design and presentation of my book such as screen printing a front cover onto the fabric of the book. I will first make a digital version of my book in the form of a PDF document, I will include this as a download QR code in the back of my book for clients to more easily review.
All extra plans for this book might be put on hold or changed later on in my project due to time contraints or matierial cost and production, for now I will focus on creating my book layout in a PDF document and see if I can later produce it into a book or a zine.
Fred's FMP 