Skip to content
The Birth of a Book Buku by Urszula Giren

The Birth of a Book Buku by Urszula Giren is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2020 A' Design Award Emas in Desain Media Cetak dan Terbitan Competition Category.


EmasCetak· 2020

The Birth of a Book Buku

by Urszula Giren

Client: Urszula Gireń

A' Design Award Emas Winner in Cetak Category

Colors

Email this page

The Design

About The Birth of a Book Buku

Kelahiran Sebuah Buku adalah publikasi cetak tentang desain buku di Polandia pada abad ke-16. Buku ini menyajikan cetakan-cetakan lama dalam ukuran aslinya, sehingga pembaca dapat melihat format orisinalnya. Jaket pelindungnya menampilkan metode imposisi yang digunakan untuk format oktavo kuno. Pembatas buku berbentuk pita menandai ketinggian buku format folio, kuarto, dan oktavo. Cukilan kayu pada halaman judul dicetak dengan inversi warna, mengingatkan pada matriks yang berlapis tinta hitam. Formatnya berukuran 256 kali 320 milimeter, dengan 560 halaman dan sekitar 1200 ilustrasi. Tujuannya adalah menjelaskan metode pencetakan era Renaisans kepada khalayak pembaca yang luas.

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award Emas

The Birth of a Book Buku adalah pemenang A' Design Award Emas, pengakuan yang sangat bergengsi yang diberikan kepada desain kelas satu, menakjubkan, dan menonjol. Pemenang Emas adalah kreasi yang sangat inovatif, visioner, dan berkilau memukau yang mencerminkan kejeniusan, kebijaksanaan, dan kepiawaian para desainernya. The Birth of a Book Buku diharapkan menjadi penemuan yang sangat dipuji, perintis tren, dan monumental yang memberikan nilai tanpa preseden. Desain pemenang A' Design Award Emas ini adalah proyek yang spektakuler dan disegani yang sangat bermanfaat bagi dan memajukan batas-batas seni, sains, desain, dan teknologi. The Birth of a Book Buku menciptakan perasaan keinginan yang kuat, membangkitkan gairah, mendorong kreativitas, dan memukau kita.

Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

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.
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.
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.
Image Credits
Urszula Gireń / 2019

Sponsored

Explore Beyond Designers.org

Discover products, services and opportunities from our advertising partners.

Good Design Deserves Great Recognition

Nominate Your Work for the A' Design Award.

Nominate