OUGD504 - Studio Brief 01 - Hand book research

To give me an idea of what size my own publication should be I have looked into examples of hand sized books that will be appropriate for my concept. As I am going to focus on practicality when producing my book, and will have to take into consideration the size when planning the layout of my content.

I have gathered together a variety of books to give me an idea of dimension and binding methods that I will use for my own publication. This Berlin travel guide is the perfect size to fit into pockets and front pockets of aprons. It is the ideal hand book size and easy to flick through. The size is practical for day to day use and it will be durable for use for long periods of time.

The next book demonstrated a perfect example of how I am going to bind my publication. Certain stitch binds wouldn't be practical and wouldn't last for a long period of time on a book that is being handled on a daily basis and it is more of an aesthetic finish. This book has been perfect bound with a firm paper back cover bound over the top, allowing you to open the book flat. Because theres very little pages, the perfect bind allows you to open the book wide. I will have to take into consideration how many pages will be in my publication before choosing a binding method.

This publication uses a combination of stitch and perfect bind allowing it to be opened easily. It is a practical size following Jan Tschichold's ratio of 2:3 which is considered perfect size and is a practical size for putting into pockets. The thickness is at a practical weight with around 60 pages, allowing the publication to be section bound and then perfectly bound with a paper back cover. The section binding allows this publication to be opened perfectly flat which is a useful feature when using full bleed images that are spread across two pages. In terms of the facilities I have access to, using this bind will be more durable when using a PVA glue bind.

This smaller pocket book is case bound with a hardback cover, which at this size isn't the most practical. I struggled to open it fully to view the images that are being held inside and even though it's size means it can be carried almost in any way, the restrictions when opening it make it hard to read. You can't open it flat like the other books I have looked at showing that this isn't the most practical way of binding. My publication's content will include type wheres as this one only holds images so it's bind doesn't affect it that much.

This next book is an ideal size and is demonstrating a tactical way of binding a large number of pages. I suspect my publication won't hold as many pages but it is easy to open. It has been perfect bound with a paper back cover but despite being able to open it easy there is still evidence of the pages being close together. Even though this particular publication holds text, it won't be practical for spreading images over two pages which I will have to do with my landscape images.

This book is a similar size and shows the same binding method, however it won't be practical at all and won't be able to make a publication of this size with the amount of content that I am including. However depending on my time management, prefect binding a publication is efficient and cost effective.