The next stage after finishing writing my MA dissertation, was to think about the layout and format. I had thought about how I wanted it to be before writing began, and I even sketched out my ideas and was exploring papers and of course, drooling at typography that I could use. But when the time came to edit the writing with the design, I chose a format close to what they call in Norway skolebøk, or school book. The type families I ended up using were Maxime and Corinthian Bold Condensed. I wanted to convey tactility at the turn of each page, and use emergent technology, somehow in the book (at some point I thought about an AR code but then thought that would be gimmicky in this context, the very thing I examined in my thesis!). I opted for using emergent technology in the production of the book, in order to gain tactility and visual metaphors for each chapter. I used a laser cutter for the titles in some pages, acetate sheets in order to reveal a message hidden in a title, and hand-made pin-holes in black paper to communicate stars.
I had a lot of fun trying out papers, testing ideas and getting the layout together. I was short on time, so it was an intense process, with late nights as a rule. The final production was done by the wonderful guys at Konsis, which put up with all my specifications (inserting different types of paper, the order of these, adding a ribbon, and making a few copies in hard cover). The final book was hand-bound and over 300 pages (a lot of images in there, though).
I was very happy with the result, and the amount of time invested in this project was worth it!
And finally the excitement of getting the book!
