How I made my book① Imagine first?

2023年9月13日 21:57

This is a documentation of my experiences and emotions while creating my first book, with zero experiences in InDesign and book binding.

How did Everything Begin?

“Where can I read your writings?”, my friends asked me.

“It’s on my Google Drive.”

“…”

In the preliminary stages of writing the “Sound Chronicle” series, my initial idea was to create a printed version. However, most of the articles were 80% completed before I progressed to the next, I decided to publish online first to expedite their completion. Coincidentally around this time, the CEO of my company asked me to share the work I did for the company with all employees. I was uncomfortable and reluctant to do so, then he said to me.

“When you challenge yourself to share your work, it can open up new opportunities.”

On the weekend, I pondered the words deeply, which resonated with both my work and life. Making my unskilled writings public led to restless nights.

At the end of the year, I had a feeling that “Sound Chronicle” was coming close to an end, as I documented the only female in the book, 93 years old Akiyoshi-san. Time for book-making!

I was clueless about how to make it happen. I only knew I was keen to print at NEUTRAL COLORS, an independent publisher, annual magazine, and a printing shop led by editor Katoh-san. He is also the founder of the travel magazine that captivated me with its photographs and content when I was a student. If I get rejected, the idea of stamping the ground, and not leaving his previous Ogikubo workshop looped in my mind for years.

This Spring, I attended the launch event for their new magazine “work” feature. By chance, the friend I met during university works there. I was introduced to Katoh-san, then everything unfolded smoothly.

Before the First Meeting

Explain “Sound Chronicle”

An intimate portrayal of individuals in Japan who dedicate their lives to sound. From a listening cafe owner who collected junk to building amplifiers; the pioneer of minimal music, Terry Riley, who spent more than five decades mastering Indian classical music raga; sound artist Akio Suzuki who listened to echo in fifty countries, to the legendary 93-year-old jazz pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi.

Visualise the Book

The experiences are based in Japan, so from inside out, I wanted to adopt Japanese traditional book binding methods.

Japanese bookbinding
Washi (Japanese paper)
Open flatly
B6 (size of a diary)
One copy

Finding Inspirations

I went to secondhand bookshops and found which books attracted me.
When I searched on the Internet about Japanese binding, it seemed like the books cannot be opened flatly. Then, I went through all of the book-binding and book design books at Tokyo Metropolitan Library, and I discovered “retchoso”, a traditional book binding method that could do so!

References in the Photo: Please refer to the Japanese article.

The First Meeting

Paper
Handmade washi paper is made from plant-based materials, such as kozo (mulberry) and gampi fibers, and its surface fibers make printing difficult. I had to find washi-like paper, or machine-made washi. (There's also onion paper?)

Printing
As more than one third of my book was filled with images. Risograph printing is better suited for text and graphics rather than high resolution images. Therefore, only the texts will be printed in risograph, and colour will be printed in laser.