Book-making is an incredibly troubling process. There’s things to troubleshoot, and sometimes when you think you have it right, there’s still something wrong. I managed to scrape together a good mock-up, but I wasn’t able to include a gate fold like I planned. The gate fold took forever to get right, and when I did manage it, the double-sided print came out unaligned, so there was no way to really integrate it properly.

Aside from the technical difficulties, the overall form of the book came out incredibly well. I was very impressed by how the book turned out, and the pages/spreads work together a lot better than I had anticipated. With text accompanying the visuals, the sequence flowed better, and I think the overall message was also clearer. The book was pretty easy to make, and it fell into place the way I wanted it to, but that gate fold really was something else. I’m now at the point that I either try to narrow down the craft and execute, or simply do without it.

I have been trying to really nail down the central message, and I think creating the mock-up solidified what I was leaning towards, and I have made the flower into more of a metaphor for life than anything.

All in all, this was an interesting experience, one marked by a lack of staples and a wobbly set of pages. However, things are moving along smoothly.

Some samples of mark-up spreads: