— PROJECT NAME
This Book Belongs To:
a catalogue of bookplates designed and owned
by women
— ROLE
Print Design
Collage Design
Archival Research
Box Making
— DATE
Spring 2025
— SPECS
Adobe Indesign
— PAPER
Munken Design in Pure
Smooth Cream at 170gsm,
G.F. Smith Accent Antique
in Alabaster at 300gsm, Black Japanese Silk Bookcloth, Gmund Action Electric Blood at 430 gsm
The Extension Project during my masters was a chance to write my own brief and complete a project that built upon skills and interests I already had. Having to write a self-directed brief allowed me to clearly dictate what the overall project would be and what steps would be addressed in each stage of the process.
I designed a catalogue of a portion of the bookplates housed in the University of Reading’s Ephemera Archive. This idea stemmed from my interest in large-format publications and the typographical hierarchy required to clearly present complex information.
I wanted the catalogue to be appealing to non-experts in the field. Rather than an overload of information in a list format, I created a layout and grid system that supports full-scale images of the bookplates and the appropriate information while still being beautifully presented.
Using the archives at the University of Reading, I sorted through the extensive bookplate collection and scanned my chosen pieces. Ensuring they were shown in the catalogue at their true size was extremely important, so I took great time in editing the scans and laying them out in an accessible way for the reader.
There was an extreme amount of craft that went into the making of this project. I made marbled paper collages and tip-ins for each of the section openers, breathing life into the book while accomplishing one of the catalogue themes, which was to take traditional elements of a book and present them in a more contemporary way. I also made a slipcase covered in black Japanese silk that was lined with a fluorescent red colour with a cutout that reveals the title of the catalogue. This window mimics the appearance of a bookplate and relates to my treatment of the paratextual elements inside the catalogue.
