The Birth of a Book: A Renaissance-Inspired Design Masterpiece

Urszula Giren's Award-Winning Design Project Revives 16th Century Bookmaking

The project, which started in May 2017 in Bialystok and finished in February 2019 in Katowice, Poland, involved extensive research into the materials, typefaces, ornaments, and graphics used in old books. Giren also studied the works of renowned Polish and European publishers, typographers, and punchcutters. The result is a publication that not only showcases old prints in their real size but also illustrates their production methods.

The book's unique properties lie in its structure and design elements. The dust jacket, for instance, shows a printing sheet and typographic composition at a 1:1 scale. The title pages feature woodcuts in color inversion, referencing matrices covered with black ink. These compositions were plotted on a scheme invented by Villard de Honnecourt, a 13th-century artist, and mirror the proportions of columns and margins used in the 16th century.

The book was digitally printed and bound with a hardback, paper binding, and thermo-gluing. The covering is made of black beater-dyed paper, with a dust jacket reflecting an imposition method for the old octavo book format. A ribbon bookmark depicts the folio, quarto, and octavo heights. The book-block is made of Pergraphica Natural Smooth 120 g, with CMYK digital printing and PUR glue.

The design project faced several challenges, including the complex structure of the text and the inclusion of numerous illustrations. Organizing an appropriate grid required several verifications, and the project was largely based on mathematical calculations related to the content of the publication. The divisions and colors used were entirely derived from the content and the goal of optimally exposing illustrations and text.

"The Birth of a Book" was awarded the Golden A' Print and Published Media Design Award in 2020. This prestigious award is granted to marvelous, outstanding, and trendsetting creations that reflect the designer's prodigy and wisdom. They are venerated products and bright ideas that advance art, science, design, and technology, embodying extraordinary excellence and significantly impacting the world with their desirable characteristics.