OUGD404 - Studio Brief 02 - Task 02 - What is a book? - Structure, display, presentation

In this session i worked within a group to look at how books can be created, how they are folded, bound, sized and what material is used to give different type of books their structure and feel. 

Everyone in the group brought in a minimum of three different type of books, including myself. We were then to go around each person and listen to a short definition of each book, covering the points of how each book is structured, how it was made and bound and what materials were used, also any personal connection to the books we brought in. 
The books i had chosen to bring into the session and talk about were different from each other is some way. 

The first was a notebook, which is important to me as i use it on a daily basis when i'm at university. This book is spiral bound, with plain A5 paper sheets, with front and back cardboard pages to give it structure, it is also protected by thick plastic sheets, which also give the book a stronger feel.

The second book is a small, compact and full of illustrative images. The pages are small but just large enough to show the art work that the book is presenting. The cover of the book is made with a very thick stock, however it seems to be a hard spongy material, it is soft and i would say very hard wearing at the same time. I think the purpose of this design is that even though the book will probably be used and looked at a lot, it is strong enough to stay intact for a long time.

The third book i decided to share was a normal, frequently used design of a book, with A5 pages inside the book made with quite thin stock, and a regular thickness of card covering the book for protection.

The books above are a good example of how books are structured and made differently, with different stock which respond to the cost of production, the size of the book, the purpose of the book, the target audience is probably also taken into account. 

After everyone in the group had finished talking and discussing their chosen book, i took the chance to take a few images of some of the other interesting type of books i could see. Most of the books that everyone has brought in were somehow different from one another. 

The images above are another good example of how a books can be different, also these images are a good example of personal definitions of what a book actually is.

After some research and discussion, we then moved onto the next task where we took some different sized paper and began experimenting, to create our own style and structure of a book. There were no limits to how we created it, as long as it was usable. After some time experimenting we then shared our designs around the group and decided on which one was the best.

The best design was then created using A2 sheets of paper, big enough to present to all groups in the class, to talk about how the book was created and what was its purpose. 

With a total of 21 pages in the shape of a triangle!, we managed to create this and finalize the design using three sheets of A2. 

I definitely feel i have taken something new from this session, it has opened my mind to what a book actually is, as in a book doesn't have to be created and designed in the original open from right to left pages style.