The reason why I got back into my topic was, because lately I have been doing more handmade design and found it fun and refreshing in comparison to sitting on the computer all day. In this blogpost I want to report on my personal experience on this topic. For the course ‘print production’ we got to do multiple things by hand. During our lecture at ‘Invinitive Factory’ and ‘Maarble’ for example, we got to bind books. Once we used book bolts, which was super fast and easy. We had to fold the papers by hand, punch holes into them, fold the cover page and then screw in the bolts. It surprised me how quick and easy this technique is, whilst still resulting in a very clean and professional look. If I already had all the utensils at home, I would personally much prefer binding brochures in a small quantity at home, rather than getting it bound by a cheap online service. The other time we bound books was with needle and thread. This took much longer and has a much more distinctive handmade looking result. What stuck out to me was how much fun it was to take the time and get lost in the details. With every stich you could see it coming together, which felt really great.
Another time we went to ‘DruckZeug’ to set and print postcards analog. I also went there again privately, to print the cover for a booklet. This, in comparison to book binding can be directly compared to digital designing in my opinion. I thought it was much harder, not only because you have to set the letters inverted, but because you have to use your imagination so much. When you set the words, you can’t yet decide where on the page they will be printed, or in which color. So, the result is much more of a surprise. But when it works out the surprise is so nice, that it really feels like a great accomplishment. Sometimes when designing digitally, the changes are so easy to make, that it never really feels finished and the result often feels more like a compromise because the options are endless. I also enjoyed the different steps of setting and afterwards printing. It makes the task more varied, so that it doesn’t get boring. In general, I believe I designed much more planned than when I open my laptop. I also felt braver in a way, because I couldn’t know what the result will look like anyways, so I just went for my idea and hoped for the best.
During the international week I was in the workshop of Daniel Utz, where we worked on pictograms. As a warming-up exercise we had to use stamps and cut out paper, to create simple shapes and put them together as scenes. Doing this in an analog way made it much easier to collaborate with others I noticed. Also, I felt keener to experiment and had many ideas of how to create interesting shapes. On the computer I tend to google and get inspiration of how other people did it.
In general, I had a lot of fun using my hands and analog techniques to design this semester and personally feel the benefits of it. But it has to be said, that these techniques are pretty time consuming and can therefore be considered sort of a luxury. They also require some equipment, some of which is easy to acquire, some of it harder.
