The Springback Account Ledger

My friend Amy is scheduled to teach a workshop on Springback Binding in a few weeks, and asked me if I would help work out the timing for some parts of it.  It's not a structure that I've made before, so I was curious to see how it all came together.  And I like working on things with her!  We had one meeting to go over the initial steps in the structure and discuss where students may run into problems and some of the timing of things.  And then I got too excited about the whole thing!

I worked with a book that was converted from individual page .pdf form into a paginated collection of 4-folio sections.  This was I would have a completed, real book instead of just a "model" book.  The sewing took a bit (as this was a thick textblock) but after that it all went quite smoothly.  The main obstacle I encountered was drying time - I was anxious to continue!!!!

The flange for this thing is magnificent - it's got SO MUCH stuffed into it and ends up being ridiculously stiff.  The leather is easily applied and didn't stretch too much.  It took seemingly forever to dry though.

And it works!!!  And I'm thrilled with it.  I'm a fan of books with slightly-too-thick covers, so I love this structure.  The opening mechanism is great - you can feel it "pop" the textblock out of the spine.

The springback binding is most commonly seen in old account ledgers.  The "spring" allows the spine to pop out and lets the pages all open flat, straight across the gutter.  To do this you create a magnificent lever that is incorporated into the binding.  The boards for these books are generally quite thick, and the spine is solid as well.  The leather applied to these books was traditionally only edge-pared, allowing for a little bit more stability with the thicker leather.  

Ten Books

I've been meaning to talk a little bit here about some books that I've read recently, books that I refer to often, and books that inspire a bunch. Some are pretty specific to what I've been working on of late (book design and structure). I'll try and get a more craft-specific one on here soon. In the meantime - I hope you find this little corner of my life helpful, and I hope that - should this inspire you to pick up any of these titles - you find them as awesome as I do.

- Elements of Typographic Style. By forcing the designer to think about the design of the letterforms, the text and the type can work together to convey appropriate meaning. This book presents a clear, concise history of the evolution of many common typefaces, and why they work. It's 100% awesome, and I reach for it frequently.

- The Stuff of Thought. I picked this book up a few months ago on my way out to Minneapolis. It's chock full linguistic insanity - how we process and use words to communicate.

- State By State. This is a great collection of essays in the tradition of WPA Travel guides. Each state is represented and discussed by a different author. Visiting a state, growing up in a state, driving through a state - every place is given it's own anecdote and tale.

- An Illustrated Life. A collection of pages from sketchbooks of artists and illustrators and designers. This book is stunning and inspiring. For someone who has tried to keep a sketchbook many times and failed, every time I look through this I want to try again.

- Speck. If you've seen my house, or my Flickr stream, you'll know that I like stuff. It's everywhere! This book provides a little bit of light on the everyday and makes the reader re-evaluate it's place and our view of it.

- Art of the Japanese Postcard. I saw this show when it was at the MFA a few years ago. The postcards are beautiful little stories, and stories unto themselves. The history behind many of them is wonderful, and the printing is meticulously done.

- Big Book of Pulps. I love a good pulp story, and I swoop up any pulps I see at yard sale and Goodwill. They're totally silly, yet completely captivating. This collection - while a bit gigantic and unwieldy - keeps me from having an allergy attack to the musty smells of those older books while I read them :)

- Bookdesign. Not for everyone, but it's what I do! This is a TREMENDOUSLY helpful reference. And it's really well put together and organized (of course).

- American Book Design & William Morris. William Morris really had his design finger in every pie, didn't he? Using the same meticulous, all-encompassing enthusiasm that he applied to all other aspects of his design work, Morris' take on book design is incredible to think about and behold in this day of parcelled out production, where each individual is responsible for ONE aspect of the final product.

- Envisioning Information. Oh, Edward Tufte, you are an evil genius. How you convey information is just as important as what you are trying to say. And he says it all perfectly.