In order to ensure that the final publication was exactly as planned, I decided to print out some mock ups to test out the sizing and binding for production.
Staple binding is easy, does what you need quickly and is cheaper to reproduce at a larger scale than other binding methods. There is less room for human error however there is the risk of something going incorrectly with every binding method you could choose from. Another plus of staple bind is that there is less to focus on with the binding; the user will be able to concentrate more on the content than how the publication is bound - something I would consider as important as the photographs within the publication are important.
I initially thought an A4 size publication would be suitable as I could scale the images large in order to capture a lot of detail, however to make an informed decision I mocked up my publication scaled down to A5 as well.
This made the publication lighter and more pocket sized, yet the size of the images meant less impact as they were much smaller and it is harder to see the details. I had to decide whether the portability of the publication was more important than the quality of my images.
The above examples show experimentation with a saddle stitch binding method in both A4 and A5 size. A4 is larger and required more holes in the spine because I did not want large areas of thread, as I did not think that would be as secure. This left an attractive stitch. The smaller mock up only needed three holes overall.
Saddle stitch would keep my publication together efficiently however I was concerned about the thread obstructing the photographs, which is what I want all the focus on when the user is interacting with the publication. If the thread is not tight enough the book will eventually become looser, something that is not a risk with the staple method; once the staple is in, it will only become unsecured if pulled on purpose.
It was also suggested that I could hire a service to perfect bind my book, however due to the restrictions regarding deadlines for this brief, this would be unfeasible as it would take time to send away for the files to be printed and then sent onto a binding company. I emailed Diamond Print Services which also confirmed that this idea would not work for this current brief as there would not be enough time to get this completed within the deadline. However if I was to do this, I would be certain that the end result would be attractive and reliable, yet costly.
Personally I feel the staple method would be the most appropriate option; keeping production costs lower and faster whilst preventing distraction from the purpose of the book, all while keeping it intact. Hopefully during final production this method will work efficiently and there will be no error.
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