Different approaches to the 1-off book

[David R Munson]

I love putting together portfolios. Professionally, I need a good portfolio in order to get decent work. On a personal level, though, I sometimes like to take bodies of work, print them, and put them together in some sort of portfolio or book for my own personal use. Something fun and easy to refer to when I need to.

I've taken a number of different approaches to this. Sometimes silver prints, sometimes digital (gasp!), and they're put together in all different sorts of ways. Sometimes in a vaguely scrapbook-ish form, other times I'll take 'em to Kinkos to have them bound in one of a few different ways. One of my recent favorites for binding includes nothing but a stack of 11x17 Epson prints, a 3-hole-punch, and a roll of gaff tape. I'm currently playing around with stab binding in preparation of my next personal book.

What formats/methods have you used for putting together personal bodies of work? I'm mainly thinking of putting things in book form, but if you have a unique twist on a traditional print portfolio I'd be glad to hear about that too. I'm really just looking for any fresh ideas people here might have to offer.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Aggie]

A good book to get on making hand made books is one by La Plantz. I think her first name is Shari. She and her husband were best friends of a metal smithing prof, of mine. They some times do workshops at the Appalachian Crafts Center near Smithville TN.

 

[Jeremy]

I'm curious about this, too, as I would like to start making small hand-made books of images to give as gifts and maybe sell of the quickly disappearing landmarks of the town I live in (I'm figuring 10-15 images digitally printed to sell to the masses--I already have multiple sale venues when they are finished, and a much higher priced digi-neg palladium book that would also be given as a gift to a select few... if I was able to grab an open spot in Clay Harmon's digi platinum workshop at the end of May *plug for Clay for drawing my attention to this workshop*)

 

[Jeremy]

Here's link to a photo.net discussion where one guy has made his own wedding albums for sale. It looks great, but he said that from conception to a finished book took 3 months or on-an-off work while he figured out everything he needed to do to get it perfect.

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=007vPD

 

[Aggie]

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...f=sr_1_1/002-3248008-9888809?v=glance&s=books

Here is one of the books Shareen has on the subject. At least i was close on her first name.

 

[Jeremy]

Thanks, Aggie, I'm going to Hastings today and will see if they have any of her books...

 

[David R Munson]

Thanks for the link, Aggie. The book is now on my wish list.

 

[jtsatterlee]

I have Shareen LaPlantz's book, and I would recommend it as a resource for stab binding and other techniques.

also check out http://www.peculiarplanet.com/books/ for some concepts.

 

[removed account4]

hi

i have been making my own photo books since the early 1980s
i at first worked with a bookbinder who worked with some of the major libraries / archives to do conservation and binding work and later ended up finding a handful of books about on bookbinding.

if you are into a real stitched and bound book. one of the best series of bookmaking books i have come across are keith smith's
http://www.keithsmithbooks.com/
he has everything covered from artists books ( conceptual stuff ) to stab, koji and coptic stitched books. there is also a book out there called books boxes and portfolios which i also use since i can't ever remember the right proportions for glues/ pastes &C.

http://www.kids-knowledge.com/Books...ruction_and_Design_StepByStep_0830634835.html

you might consider making some folios/ pamphlets ... they are really easy (needle thread and paper ), and if you can make a mock-up with regular paper to figure out what images you want to have + where, it is pretty easy to make a multi-page, booklet with a bunch of images in it. i have come to the conclusion that art directors love that sort of hand made portfolio / leave behind since they went to art school and love the creative side of things, even though their conservative clients don't ever really let them let their hair down

places like talas in new york and gaylord brothers sell book making materials to the general public. they might not have the books for sale, but they have the supplies

Dead Link Removed
http://www.gaylord.com/

 

[Joe Lipka]

I do this, too. My stuff is assembled in pagemaker so I have multiple ways of distributing. Check out the web versions as my site. Fify is the big "book" as well as other variations.