Frustrations in Book Design

Details matter, especially for intimate hand-held prints

Awagami Kozo thick white print with Unryu thin poetry overlay page

As Bob mentioned recently, what seems like a straightforward task can be deceptively frustrating. We're in the midst of a lengthy project of creating a photographic "portfolio book" (research, experimentation, comparisons, etc) and now that we are at the rubber-meets-the-road stage we're encountering some frustrations.

In his recent post, Bob discussed the issue of advertised paper sizes that are not accurate out of the box. This immediately created an issue for us since the pages in the book have to be the exact same size. We've worked out a trimming solution to deal with it, but truly this extra work shouldn't be necessary. I would think that with today's technology paper manufacturers could guarantee that the paper sizes they advertise are actually that precise size.

Choosing Papers

With a book project, design is a critical feature. We always strive to help photographers understand that presentation should be planned as carefully as printing. Photography is a visual medium, so for us it's painful to see the impact of beautiful imagery lessened by poor design or distracting presentation.

For this specific portfolio book project, we'll be combining poetry and calligraphy with my images taken in the mountains of China. I wrote a few newsletters on this last year when developing a proof-of-concept of the eventual handmade and hand-bound book. In this evolving experiment, we're using a gorgeous Scott Mullenberg hand-made portfolio book that he custom made for us to insert the printed images.

I immediately faced a stumbling block. I wanted Hsieh Ling-Yun's (385-433 C.E.) evocative poetry to be on separate pages, preceding my related black and white images of China's Tiananmen mountains and its people. I did not want the poetry pages to be printed on the same fine art paper as my image.

I had previously decided to use Awagami washi papers for the portfolio book (Disclosure: I am an International Awagami Ambassador). But when we printed a test print on Moab Entrada Rag Natural, we were blown away. The D-Max, as always with Entrada, was outstanding, so I was sorely tempted to go with it for the images.

When we then test printed the same image on Awagami Kozo Thick it looked beautiful, but different. Kozo has a slightly lower D-Max, but in the context of the misty mountains, it added to the surreal effect I wanted. So I decided to stay with Awagami for this project.

Matching Papers

Evaluating Awagami paper pairing with images and poetry overlay pages.

Just when it looked like the biggest hurdle was now behind us, the issue of matching the image with a covering poetry page hit me full on. We literally tested a half-dozen Awagami papers before narrowing the choice down to two; Murakumo Kozo Thin and Unryu Thin.

I wanted a degree of translucency, adding an element of expectation as people read the poetry, knowing that something visually interesting was behind it. That helped me rule out heavier papers that prevented show-through.

Bob and I even considered using vellum at one point. But the results on the Murakumo and Unryu was so spectacular, I knew that I had to choose one of them for the poetry. But, which one?

I agonized for a day over this. Bob felt Unryu was a better choice due to the artistic effect of the visible mulberry fibers. I was intrigued by the Murakumo, a gorgeous, thin paper that we have experience with, but had not yet used in a formal presentation. That night I spent hours comparing the two atop the background image, critically examining every aspect. For those of you who have used Awagami inkjet papers before, you know how wonderful it is even handling the papers.

In the end I came to agree with Bob. We will be using the Unryu for the poetry pages and the Kozo Thick.

The Reveal Coming Soon

We will soon be revealing what the portfolio book looks like. To help photographers grasp its potential, we'll be including samples of four photographic genres. Bob will photograph the layouts. Our plan for 2024 is to offer a 3-day workshop in creating an exquisite hand-made portfolio book.