Hardbound Books & InDesign Refresh

This week's workshop involved making hardbound books, over the morning and some of the afternoon, ahead of making our own books to showcase illustrations made earlier this year. 

The beginning was similar to making the pamphlet books. We had to fold paper into groups of four (signatures), then punch holes along the folds, then sew the first signature together with a running stitch. After, it became more complicated, sewing all the signatures together, then we glued the edge of the signatures together to create a spine.

After we selected a paper cover design, we had to cut greyboard to match the size of the covers and the spine, then we cut the paper to size, applied glue and folded. To finish, we added end papers and glued the signatures to the spine.

The process of hand creating a hard bound book is complicated and takes time. Nevertheless, it creates an impressive and durable book, and is handy if you wish to self-publish a long illustrated text.

In between bookbinding sessions, we had an InDesign refresh workshop ahead of online portfolio submission next month.