Hymn Book - Debossing the cover

From the start I always envisaged that the cover of my book would be embossed, so that it looks like a proper old hymn book. I had some off-cuts of perspex left from the Bath Uni project, so I took them down to the plastics workshop to get them laser etched, in the hope that I would end up with a debossing template to use in letterpress. Unfortunately, the end result was not usable:



The problem is that the laser is great for cutting or etching small areas, which would be fine if I was embossing the cover, whereby the text stands proud. But I wanted it debossed, so the letters are pressed into the cover, which meant that the laser had to etch away the majority of the perspex. It's not really designed to do that sort of thing, so there ended up being deep lines all over what should have been a smooth surface. Obviously these lines would also be pressed into the cover so that simply would not do. Besides, the sheer heat had caused the plate to warp too.

So, Plan B... I went and spoke to Penny in the print room and she said that the plate could be photo-etched. This was something I had not tried before and it sounded a bit like witchcraft - it's sort of like screenprinting but you end up with a metal plate that is suitable for putting through a press. I prepared the artwork onto Folex and gave it to Jane, the print technician. She exposed the artwork onto the plate:



The plate is then placed into a bath of water at exactly 25 degrees Celsius and scrubbed with a toothbrush to get rid of all the stuff that was not masked off by the artwork. Jane told me that you had to be careful not to scrub too hard or your image would also be removed, so I approached the task with extreme caution. After a while I looked at the plate and I had been too gentle, so most of the excess material was still intact. I went at it again with added vigour only to destroy some of the text!



Again, this seems to be a problem with debossing - when you take away the majority of the material, the small amount that is left is incredibly fragile. My only other viable option is to send away to get the plate made professionally. This would cost me at least £30 and I doubt it would get here prior to hand-in on May 14th, so it looks like I will have to screenprint it instead. It's a real shame but perhaps I can have another go at it after the deadline, for my portfolio. The other thing I want to try is spraying the page edges gold. Kate Holland said it was possible, providing I brushed talcum powder between all the pages first to stop them from sticking. This is not a risk I am willing to take so close to hand-in.

Hymn Book - Binding

Due to careful project management, I was able to have everything ready for a bookbinding workshop at Dartmouth Avenue. I wasn't too confident with the process, I had only done a blank sketchbook before, so I figured I would really benefit from the advice of a professional. Kate Holland gave us a lecture the day before the workshop and it was clear that she was the right person to help me get my book bound to a high standard.

With her expert guidance, I made holes in each of my sections and set to work on the sewing. It actually went really well; I took my time and made sure that I pulled the thread good and tight at the end of every section. Once all the sections were in place I placed the book block under a heavy weight and applied PVA glue liberally to the spine:



After the glue had dried, Kate and I went over and trimmed the excess on the guillotine. The edge wasn't perfect, due to the bulge at the spine because I had so many sections and therefore so much thread. I will have to sand this down in woodworking at some point to get it really flat and smooth. For now it was time to get on with the hardback cover. I selected a nice green bookbinding cloth and trimmed some board down to the exact proportions of my book block and spine. The pieces of board were then glued onto the back of the cloth and the edges were creased and folded over, glued neatly in place and rubbed down with a bone folder. I made two covers and have the knowledge and materials to make more, just in case anything goes wrong with the printing.

Hymn Book - Getting it printed

I went and spoke to Steve about getting my book printed. It weighed in at a pretty hefty 208 pages, including contents etc, so I made sure I gave him plenty of lead time. Turns out he can only print double-sided four-page sections, which seems a bit daft as that is only a single page, so I was going to have problems getting the imposition right. I worked around this by exporting each 16-page section as a separate pdf, so that I had total control.

As it is such a small book I was able to get two copies printed for pretty much the price of one, which is handy in case anything goes wrong with the binding. I trimmed the spreads slightly, leaving plenty of bleed so I could guillotine it after binding, then carefully folded them all and put the sections into order.

Hymn Book - Development

I have now got all of the chants chosen for the book. The finished piece will be a proper hardback comprising stitched sections of 16 pages, so I have opted for a total page count of 208, which is divisible by 16. This includes the contents etc but not the endpapers, as these will be added at the end as part of the binding process. I compiled most of the chants from various websites and these two books which I bought from Amazon:



The content is divided up into teams, although a lot of the chants are either generic or there is only one decent one for a certain team. In this case I would not add that team to the contents page, instead they will go into the "OTHER" section. I am not particularly happy that the "OTHER" section makes up pretty much half the book but I can't really see a better way of doing it.

I have also decided to move the hymn numbers away from the hymn itself and place them consistently up in the corner of the page, in 12pt Joanna. Beneath each hymn I have the tune it was based on, in brackets in Joanna 6pt italic, with a one-line space above. Above each hymn, where applicable, I will have the name of the person or team the song is about, if it is not obvious from the lyrics themselves. This will be in Joanna 6pt italic with a one-line space below, and will take the format of "unto [team or player name]".

I really liked having verse numbers next to all but the first verse but I don't think it is practical as nearly all the chants have only one verse. Very few have more than two verses, so it may look a bit odd having them at all. It's a shame as it is a hymn book convention and would serve to make this look more like a real hymn book.

This is the finished page design:

Hymn Book - Page layout test

Looking at various hymn books, I noticed that they typically had hymn numbers as well as page numbers. I decided to add these to my template. They are set in Joanna MT Std Bold 12pt and positioned directly above the first word of the first verse. The first word is always set in small caps (apart from the first letter, which is a regular cap), as they are often found in hymn books. Also, all verses after the first one are numbered. The number is just Joanna MT Std Bold 6pt followed by a space.

Here is an example of how a finished hymn might look:



The text for the entire hymn is centre-justified and centred on the page. The hymn number is then positioned relative to this.

Hymn Book - Typography tests

I set up an InDesign template for my football hymn book. It is slightly larger than the "Songs of Praise" book I have been using for reference, with a page size of 86mm x 120mm. I printed a few sample pages, set in classic serif typefaces - Minion, Times New Roman, Perpetua, Baskerville, Garamond and Joanna.

My favourite is definitely Joanna. It is very light and elegant, perfectly suited to a hymn book, and I have it in a number of weights - regular, italic, semibold, semibold italic, bold, bold italic and extra bold.

Hymn Book - Further thoughts

After discussing my hymn book project idea with one of my tutors, I have decided to pursue the original plan of filling it with football chants. I think the line about football being like a religion is the clincher, plus using the format of an austere old hymn book filled with often obscene lyrics is too good to pass up.

I managed to get hold of an old hymn book from my parents' house:



I will look at other examples, so long as I don't spontaneously combust upon entering a church, but I do really like the idea of this sort of format. It is pretty small, measuring approximately 75mm x 115mm, so I can imagine it may be quite tricky to sew the sections together. Speaking of which, I must remember that the number of pages must be divisible by four - each section will consist of four double-sided spreads, or sixteen pages. I just hope I can find enough good football chants to make it a thick book, at least thick enough to have a substantial spine.

I want it to be case bound, using cardboard covered in some kind of cloth, which I will then screenprint on the cover and spine. I am not sure if I should make the cover up prior to printing or just print onto the cloth. If it's the latter I will do a few copies in case I make mistakes with the binding. I will research binding techniques over the next day or so, plus chase up our course leader to see if we are getting another bookbinding workshop.

Typography-wise, I want it to look as much like an old hymn book as possible, so I will probably opt for a classic serif font like Garamond or Baskerville. I will obviously do a few legibility tests at small sizes first, probably at 6pt.

On the cover I will have an image of a football, or maybe one of those old spinning rattle things that people used to take to matches. The title could be "Songs of Praise" or maybe something like "Hymns from the Terrace".

Final Project Ideas

I have been thinking long and hard about what to do for my final project. I was thinking about doing a re-branding exercise for a post-coalition Lib Dem party, something biting and satirical that at a glance could pass as a real piece of PR. But I decided that I wasn't sure of my angle, beyond a comical "Hey, we fucked up!" approach. I figured I would wind up spending way too much time researching the politics and generating original content, when in reality I am on a design course, so my focus should be on that aspect.

While watching football over the weekend, I discussed my favourite terrace chants with a mate and thought it might be nice to make a little hymn book called "Hymns from the Terraces" or something similar. I would want it to look just like an old hymn book that you would find in a church. The content already exists - my job would be to research and find the best examples, organise the content in an appropriate manner and typeset it beautifully in a lovely little case-bound hardback book. It would be a really nice thing, the content would be funny and it would also be a comment on football being "the new religion".

Then I started thinking about how actors and pop stars are so revered these days - aren't they "the new gods"? How about making a little hymn book for the 21st century, containing the lyrics from the best songs of all-time? I think it would be great to see the lyrics to Beatles and Abba songs presented in a different way. How about Morrissey, or Oasis? I can't stand Oasis personally but I would still put some of their songs in, as they mean a lot to so many people. I could make my selection from all the "Best Song Ever" lists that are published by the music press each year.

Yes, I like that idea. Perhaps I will do that.