Thinking ahead to the need to physically print out and bind my design work into portfolios, I have been weighing up different formats which I could use.
For all of my design and technology portfolios last year, I used a format of A3 square (297x297mm) bound with a Japanese stab-stich binding method. I really enjoyed making these books, and think that they look nice and professional. I also find the A3 square format to be a good and fairly versatile one for some applications, best for things like the technology reports which often require a mixture of short paragraphs and small diagrams and images, but not too many larger drawings. This format is not best suited for having things crossing over two facing pages – although I have so far managed to format things correctly to allow for detail being lost in the centre, it is not ideal.
Example of Japanese stab-stitch binding on one of my design portfolios from MArch1 – doesn't open flat, so detail can be lost in the spine
To negate the issue of losing detail in the centre between two pages, a saddle-stitch binding method can be used. This is what I've used for my Stasis and Thesis work (in A4 square format in those cases). This means that spreads open up and lie flat, which is much better for drawings crossing two pages. However, like the stab-stitch binding, it does mostly limit drawings to being a maximum of two pages in size, unless special fold out pages are incorporated.
Example of saddle-stitch binding used for my Stasis submission – opens flat so no detail is lost in the spine
To give greater flexibility than either of these methods, I have been testing out my portfolio in an A3 portrait format using accordion folding instead of binding. Initially, as I didn't have access to a large plotter at the time, I tested it out with a run of about 10 pages on a very small scale. I was pleased with how I managed to plan it so that using just one sheet, the pages could be configured to open like a conventional book, and with a back cover, spine and front cover all incorporated as well.
Small-scale prototype of portrait orientation ISO paper format in accordion folding arrangement, incorporating main body pages, back cover, spine and front cover all from one folded sheet
The good thing about this format is that it can be leafed through just like a conventional book, but then long drawings and images can be laid across as many pages as possible, and then the reader can open the whole drawing out into its long strip form. This will be useful for my long photographic site sections, which I plan to create from photographs taken at my next site visit.
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