Origins of the book Edit The binding of a Chinese bamboo book (Sun Tzu’s The Art of War) The craft of bookbinding probably originated in India, where religious sutras were copied on to palm leaves (cut into two, lengthwise) with a metal stylus. The leaf was then dried and rubbed with ink, which would form […]
Category: 1: Beginning
Creative Design Process
Working to a ‘Brief’ A book designer generally works to a ‘brief’ – a specific set of requirements for a particular project. The brief may be set by an external agency, or it may be self-initiated. The scope of the brief may vary in terms of how much creative input the designer can exercise. In some assignments the designer […]
Fanzines

It was first used by US sci fi enthusiast Louis Russell Chauvenet in 1940 and by 1949 was in common use. ‘Fanzine’ was abbreviated to ‘zine’ in 1970s. The rise of fanzines was part of the punk subcultural response to mainstream society – in this case, mainstream print. Distribution: Zines were hand-made publications produced in […]
History of book design
Book Design History The language and terminology we use in book design today stems from early Egyptian books. Origins The earliest forms of books were scrolls produced by Egyptian scribes over 4,000 years ago. Images and vertical text were hand-drawn onto palm leaves, then later onto papyrus scrolls. Papyrus was made from the pith of […]
Eric Gill


Dan Eldon

Sara Fanelli

Identity
As a photographer of people, you need to get to grips with the idea of identity and social constructions of identity. How you portray people will have ethical and moral implications. And you’ll need to create images that convey a particular truth or message, depending on the brief in hand. What am I to who? The discovery of […]
Guerilla Girls, a feminist group fighting sexism in arts practice. Formed in New York in 1985, the group maintain their anonymity by wearing gorilla masks and using the names of dead female artists as pseudonyms, e.g. Frida Kahlo and Hannah HÖch. They put pressure on organisations such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York by […]