OUIL405 Studio Brief 2 - A Book of... Printing and Binding

I decided to print my illustrations using thick matt paper. As my illustrations were A5 I had to use A3 paper to allow for bleed which allows for extra border when cutting the pages.

After I had printed my work I then had to cut out the grey areas. I used a scalpel to achieve the most detailed cuts. Unfortunately as they were printed double sided not all of the images lines up 100% perfectly, this meant that when I was cutting out the grey areas I had to ensure both sides had no grey left. In future I would probably try to use a later cutter to get the most clean cuts. 

Below is the sheets after the grey areas are cut out. Even though it is not properly folded yet you can still see how the cut out areas will look with the previous images showing through. 

I had to use the above device so that the holes would be pierced accurately and in the same points throughout all the pages. I had difficulties with binding my book as some of my pages have cut out areas. This caused a problem when sewing it along the crease and when using the guillotine as a 3mm border was left around the edge of the cut out area and it looked really flimsy despite the thick paper. I decided to use a scalpel to just remove the border part to reduce the risk of the pages tearing. I made more holes along the crease to ensure all the pages were bound as well as possible to secure the book. I used the pamphlet stitch to bind my pages and I added a brown/mauve cover, as it fits in with the warm colour schemes of my book, made of card that is strong enough to protect the pages but not to heavy and restrictive. 

Above: Using black and white pen I illustrated the cover of my book. It is not the most professional looking so if I were to do this again I would have planned it out before and had it printed properly. However as this was a decision I made after seeing the finished book I think it was a good option. I didn't want to make it look too complicated so I stuck with the two colours and used the original logo for the Costbucks coffees.