WHAT IS GOOD?// Binding UKSA Identity Manual

In the morning I have printed and organised the UKSA Brand Identity Manual. The manual was printed on bulky newsprint because this produces a nice, semi-coated feel if its put through the laser-printer. I am slightly disappointed by the printers reproduction of the black colours however the blue identity colour is pretty spot on. Another advantage of using the laser printer is that it produces superior duplex prints over the digital room due to it being automated, and the text is much finer and does not bleed at all, even on this fibrous stock.

In this image I have securely clamped down the loose pages and have started drilling 11 holes down the spine in preparation for a japanese bind. The danger here is that if a single page shifts it will basically be ruined and I will have to print it again, which is not really an option given the time contraints. It is remarkably easy for the book to shift at this larger size which is why I went a bit crazy with the clamps. This image also shows how I have trimmed a bout an inch off the spine side of the book. the other three sides will be trimmed after the pages have been bound.

I japanese bound the book using the waxy black thread, I chose this because it is much stronger than the white and will be hidden by a cover anyway. I am binding this book with the same technique I used for the Fedrigoni book in the responsive brief  however I have managed to make a much stronger bind here, which I guess shows I've got better at binding since then. This type of bind is suitable for the weight and size of this book, I almost perfect bound however this book is too skinny and tall for this to have been truly necessary. The japanese bind is stronger but has left me with quite a wide area for the binding alone, plus a bit extra so the content is not lost in the binding area. I took a bit of a gamble here that the area used for binding was not to thin that the book would fall apart but not too thick that the binding area would be much to wide and eat up the content on the inside fold. I managed to get this just about right with carful planning and a bit of luck.

I have used a small amount of double sided sticky tape to secure the binding cover in place and applied a good amount of pva to the spine to secure the binding. This should make the spine very durable. I then stretched the binding cover material over the spine and around the other side. The material I have used here is designed to cover card to create hardback book covers, I've sort of used it as binding tape for this book and I think its has been pretty effective visually and structurally. It took me a while to measure everything up and cut the material to the right size before applying it but I managed to get it spot on, which is lucky as trimming afterwards would have been impossible.

Rather than use the big book cutter that is apparently getting rather inaccurate I decided to trim the other sides of the book with a big craft knife and ruler. This was nerve-racking to say the least but the end result is a much cleaner and even cut. One thing that would have been impossible on the big cutter would be getting the weight of the blue boarder lines the exact same width on all four sides, as well as making sure that they are completely straight. With the craft knife a ruler this aspect has been much more accurate.

Im really pleased with how good the book looks now. If you compare it to the test book I put together to test the size and layout its a huge improvement, any quality that the laser printer subtracted from the overal look and feel is reimbursed by the quality of the paper and the binding. What I am also very happy about is that I managed to find an off-cut of the exact material that I wanted to cover the binding; its great because it matches the 60% K colour which is one of the visual identity colours outlined within the book itself.