Gold Print and Published Media Design · 2020
The Birth of a Book Scientific Publication
- A' Design Award 2020 Gold Winner in Print and Published Media Design
- Awarded April 15, 2020
- CLIENT: Urszula Gireń
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 79,292
- Verification code 6167DEEB4A · Verify this award
About The Birth of a Book Scientific Publication
The Birth of a Book is a printed publication about book design in 16th century Poland. The book presents old prints at real size, so readers can see the original formats. The dust jacket shows the imposition method used for the old octavo format. A ribbon bookmark marks the heights of folio, quarto and octavo books. Woodcuts on the title pages are printed in color inversion, recalling matrices covered with black ink. The format is 256 by 320 millimeters, with 560 pages and about 1200 illustrations. The aim is to explain Renaissance printing methods to a wide readership.
Urszula Gireń's The Birth of a Book Scientific Publication stands as an exemplary achievement in contemporary scholarly publishing design, positioning itself at the intersection of historical typographic tradition and modern editorial sophistication. The work appears to engage deeply with the visual culture of early printed books, drawing upon the aesthetic vocabulary of Renaissance typography while maintaining a decisively contemporary sensibility through its restrained monochromatic palette and precise geometric compositions. The cover illustration, featuring intricate perspectival constructions rendered in fine white lines against the dark ground, suggests a meditation on the mathematical foundations that governed early book design, the proportional systems and harmonic ratios that Renaissance printers employed to achieve visual harmony on the printed page. The accompanying printed sheets, unfurling in carefully arranged disarray, reveal dense compilations of historical typographic specimens, decorative elements, and scholarly apparatus that collectively document the evolution of book-making traditions. The technical accomplishment demonstrates remarkable control over the challenging medium of reversed-out printing, where fine white details emerge luminously from deep black grounds, requiring precise registration and careful ink management to maintain clarity and legibility. The formal strategy of presenting the bound volume amid its constituent elements creates a visual narrative of assembly and construction, inviting contemplation of the codex as both unified object and compilation of gathered signatures. The thematic resonance extends beyond mere historical documentation toward a celebration of the book as cultural artifact, repository of accumulated knowledge, and testament to human ingenuity in developing technologies of intellectual transmission. One might consider how this work invites reflection on the enduring significance of physical books in an increasingly digital age, celebrating the tactile, aesthetic, and symbolic dimensions that distinguish the printed volume as an object worthy of continued reverence and scholarly attention.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- The designed structure of publications presents the old prints in real size and the method of their production in additional elements like a dust jacket which show printing sheet, typographic composition at 1:1 scale. The woodcuts in color inversion on the title pages refer to matrices covered with black ink. The compositions of this pages were plotted on a scheme invented by Villard de Honnecourt, 13th century artist, and refer to the proportions of columns, margins used in the 16th century.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Format:
256 x 320 mm in a 1.25 ratio, 560 pages, the page format allowed the calculation of a multi-level grid for the composition of individual elements, including 1200 illustrations. - Tags
- renaissance book, first roman typefaces, old prints, typography
- Production Technology
- The work was digitally printed and a hardback, paper binding, thermo-gluing was used. The covering is made of black beater-dyed paper. There are also a dust jacket reflecting an imposition method for the old octavo book format, as well as a ribbon - bookmark, depicting the folio, quarto and octavo heights. Covering: Geltex Negro Antracita 191 Embossing LS 115 g (beater-dyed paper), silver color - screen printing, binder's board: spine board 2 mm, base case 3 mm, Dust Jacket: Color Style Black Smooth 120 g (beater-dyed paper) silver color - screen printing, Endpaper: Geltex Negro Antracita 191 Embossing LS 130 g (beater-dyed paper), Book-block: Pergraphica Natural Smooth 120 g, CMYK - digital printing, HP Indigo, printing according to fiber direction, PUR glue, Headband: Black, Ribbon bookmark: Black, silver color
- Design Challenge
- The biggest challenge was complicated structure of the text - a lot of auxiliary and descriptive texts, an unusually large number of various illustrations - 1274. Organizing the appropriate grid required several verifications. I based the project largely on mathematical calculations related to the content of the publication. The divisions and colors used resulted entirely from the content and the assumption of the best possible exposure of illustrations and text. By learning the methodology of 16th-century typographers, you can see frequent references to numbers that have always been present in nature. The search for systematization the surrounding world by the renaissance artists was huge inspiration. Each element in the world has its place and meaning, nothing is accidental, everything is connected with each other and interacts with each other. I also wanted to build a relationship system in the design of my publication, where the smallest part would result from the structure of the whole.
- Project Duration
- The project started in May 2017 in Bialystok and finished in February 2019 in Katowice, Poland
- Operation Flow
- All the elements in the book have been designed to familiarize the reader with the methodology of creating books in the 16th century. Starting from the format of the book showing real formats of old prints, to the dust jacket presenting the printing imposition, or the ribbon indicating the height of old books - folio, quarto, otavo.
- Research
- The first part of book contains basic information about printing, introduces the reader to the general principles of Renaissance design. In the second part of the publication, printing in Poland was discussed in more detail. This part was divided into 5 chapters, four of which have been assigned specific cities. The choice of places was justified by the pioneering activity of the printing houses, which opened there, their size, as well as the quality of the publications they produced.
- Inspiration
- The main inspirations were the general principles of Renaissance design. The first stage of the project included gathering graphic material necessary to conduct research on the old European, Polish books. The study covered individual elements, starting from the materials from which books were created: papers, binding materials, typefaces, ornaments, graphics. Information was also collected on the most well-known Polish and European publishers, typographers and punchcutters.
- Image Credits
- Urszula Gireń / 2019
Colors of The Birth of a Book Scientific Publication
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