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BOEKEN & BOOKS

Making Books 2

     

   Figure 2

Paul Morand, "New York"
Illustrations, Adriaan Lubbers
335 x 260 x 30 mm
Editer, Ernest Flammarion, Paris
Printed at Maitre Imprimeur
R. Colouma á Argenteuil
1931
Edition, 200 copies, this is nr. 15

Bound in full leather and vinyl.
Designer binding  Pierre Thielen, 1992

Collection, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Den Haag
Collection Koopman nr. A559

 

April 2002

The process of Designing.

In the process of designing, it is essential to get to the purest possible portrayal of the relationship between the book and its contents on the one hand and the design of the binding on the other; in this specific case the portrayal should be the one and only possible and inevitable reflection of the designer/binder’s thinking.
This does not mean to stress only the actual contents of the book, i.e. the text, the story. In handling the book the designer may be influenced by all sorts of diverse perceptions and emotions: the title indeed, the literary contents, but also typography, illustrations, the author, the paper used, even the fragrance of the book or the characteristics of the commissioning principal. All of these can be starting points: that which strikes or touches.

These aspects should crystallize, as it were, by a development in thinking:”designing by thinking”. We will return to this later on.
This process can never be realized by the beaten road of “old knowledge”, by means of a manual or instructions for use.

In all truthfulness I can say that every new commission is a new “first time” for me. Every designing process has its own uniqueness which is not being helped by previous successes or a standing reputation. Again the immersion into the creative process, from which comes the growing towards this special book, this unique assignment.
And when this development is in danger of loosing its freshness, of degenerating into routine, into instructions for use, it should be abandoned.

For the experienced designer it should be a simple trick to make, let’s say on an every day basis, one or more semi-interesting designs that would lead nobody to the conclusion that he was cheating.
(but during the process he would be found out, if only by himself!)

The process is being enacted by ambition guided by inner necessity, responsibility towards one’s own capacities, supplemented by a fair dose of discernment and self-critique.