CRW 323
Bookbuilding
CRW 580-002
Instructor
Class Schedule
Office Hours
E-mail
Fall 2008
Emily Smith
Thursdays 3:30–5:15 p.m., in the Publishing Laboratory (2nd Fl., Kenan Hall)
Tues.-Thurs 1-3 p.m.
Kenan 2115, or by appointment (962-7401)
smithel@uncw.edu
Course description and organization
“Bookbuilding” is the term designers use for the process of combining words and images
(photographs, illustrations, graphics) into pages, and pages into printed books.
As writers, you’re accustomed to producing words. In this course you’ll take things beyond the
manuscript, designing printed publications that challenge your verbal and visual creativity in
new ways. Why is this important to writers?
• Seeing your work in type and in print gives your words a fresh presentation that
enables you to envision the reader’s reaction and to revise more effectively.
• Producing a chapbook of your work is a valuable way to understand the publication
process, and even to gain the attention of prospective editors and agents.
• Publishing a limited-edition book—in a design of your own conception and making—
is a proud artistic tradition, and a worthy creative endeavor in its own right.
To prepare you with the necessary mindset and technical skills, this course will involve
• an introduction to principles of effective graphic design and typopraphy, with
particular application to the printed book;
• systematic training in software programs for typesetting, page layout, and image
manipulation;
• an overview of printing and bookmaking technologies.
The course will consist mostly of hands-on workshop sessions, both pencil-and-paper and
computer-based. It’s fast-paced—we cover a lot of territory in one day per week!
We will gradually cover topics, while you produce a progressively complex series of
publications. Occasionally assignment in this course will involve small group work. I expect fair
division of labor among, and equitable participation from, all members of each group. As your
capstone project, you’ll produce a chapbook featuring your own prose or verse. Along with a
series of quizzes, these projects will test your technical skills, your innovation, your
understanding of effective typography and design. Presentation of your final chapbook serves
as your final exam.
For the graduate students in the course, an additional research/presentation component
will be added to the assignments—a chance for you to think and write creatively about books
and type, and possibly to participate in leading a portion of the class.
There will also be portions of the class devoted to lecture. You’ll need to take careful notes,
since most lecture material isn’t covered in our textbooks. Questions and deeper exploration are
always welcome.
It is not possible to complete design assignments within class hours. Because the course
requires ample time out of class, students (both grad and undergrad) are required to sign up for
one additional “lab” credit hour of Directed Independent Study. The form is available from me
and should be completed and signed during the first week of class. This must be done before the
CRW 323-001/580-002 Bookbuilding, Fall 2008, page 2
last day of drop/add. The DIS credit “hour” equals approximately three actual hours of lab
time each week.
I hope this course will be an enjoyable experience, a creative challenge, and a rewarding
endeavor for each of you.
Prerequisites
A familiarity with basic computer procedures; facility with keyboarding; prerequisite courses as
outlined in program of study for major.
Required texts and materials
• Shufflebotham, Robert. InDesign CS3 in Easy Steps. Computer Step, Dec. 2007.
• Shufflebotham, Robert. Photoshop CS3 in Easy Steps. Computer Step, Nov. 2007.
• Smith, Esther K. How to Make Books. Crown Publishing Group, 2007.
• Williams, Robin. The Non-Designer’s Design Book, 3rd ed. Berkeley, Calif.: Peachpit Press,
2008.
• Flash drive or other digital media for backing up your work (we’ll discuss in class)
• Notebook, portfolio folder, pencil, and unruled paper (copier paper, drawing paper, etc.)
Additional suggested resources (optional)
• The Publishing Lab subscribes to several design periodicals, including Communication
Arts, Print, and HOW; I encourage you to take advantage of these resources. Magazines
are located in the binding room and should not be removed from the lab. If you’d like to
photocopy an article, please let a teaching assistant or me know.
• Bringhurst, Robert. The Elements of Typographic Style. 2d ed., rev. & enlarged (Point
Roberts, Wash.: Hartley & Marks, 1999). A gorgeous and useful classic, written by a
designer who is also one of the greatest poets and translators of our generation.
• Williams, Robin. The Non-Designer’s Type Book: Insights and Techniques for Creating
Professional-Level Type (Berkeley, Calif.: Peachpit Press, 1998).
• Cohen, Sandee, and Robin Williams. The Non-Designer’s Scan and Print Book (Berkeley,
Calif.: Peachpit Press, 1999). Although dated, this book provides an easy-to-follow
overview that is still relevant.
• Lee, Marshall. Bookmaking. 3d ed. New York: W. W. Norton, 2004.
• Lupton, Ellen. Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, &
Students. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2004.
Software used in class (Macintosh versions)
• Adobe InDesign CS3
• Adobe Photoshop CS3
• Microsoft Word 2004
Policies
• Attendance. To be successful in this course, you must be present and on time; there is no
way to effectively make up missed workshop content, especially for a class that meets only once
a week. I take roll every class meeting.
• Special notice about missed classes. Because the class meets only once a week, attendance is
imperative. Roll is taken at every class period. ANY MISSED CLASS RESULTS IN A PENALTY
OF GRADE POINTS: –3 for first; –6 for second; –12 for third.
• Grades. All assignments are graded on a 100-point scale, on criteria of successful
application of techniques learned, effectiveness and appropriateness of design, care and
CRW 323-001/580-002 Bookbuilding, Fall 2008, page 3
attention in execution, and improvement throughout the semester. Your final grade will be
based on the following assignments, weighted as follows:
4 quizzes, 5% each.......................................................................20%
3 design projects (P1-3), 10% each ...........................................30%
Design project (P4)….................................................................. 15%
Chapbook (P5) ..............................................................................15%
Public artist talk and chapbook presentation………………..10%
In class participation and course blog comments……….…10%
Final grades are determined by average scores, as follows:
A.................. 94–100
A- ................ 90-93
B+................ 88-89
B .................. 84–87
B- ................. 80-83
C+ ............... 78-79
C .................. 74–77
C-................. 70-73
D.................. 60–69
F................... Below 60
This course fulfills part of the requirements for the BFA Publishing Certificate.
• Academic integrity and intellectual property. Representing another person’s ideas, words, or
images as your own constitutes plagiarism and will not be tolerated. To avoid it, scrupulously
acknowledge all sources, including URLs for Internet sources.
Policy on plagiarism from the Creative Writing Department at UNCW:
While plagiarism is unacceptable in any course, it is particularly reprehensible in creative writing
courses, most of which are centered upon the improvement of the original writing of students. Therefore,
in addition to the normal penalties for plagiarism at UNCW, in the Department of Creative Writing,
students who submit plagiarized work will be dismissed from the Master of Fine Arts or the Bachelor of
Fine Arts program.
Avoiding copyright infringement is a more difficult matter these days, when text, image,
and media content are so readily available in the digital environment. We will briefly discuss
principles of intellectual property, and I will expect you to learn and abide by these as well—
but in any case, acknowledging all sources that are not your own will help keep you out of trouble in
this class and in the “real world.”
• Class participation and courtesy. Students are encouraged to participate in class discussion,
to ask questions about the class material, and to talk among themselves during projectplanning/workshop sessions. Otherwise, I expect your full, undivided attention, without
distraction to yourself or others: when you walk through the classroom door, forget about cell
phones, headphones, e-mail, IM, text messaging, or any other form of outside communication.
As part of your participation grade, I expect each student to log onto our course blog and to
comment at least three or four times throughout the semester, using vocabulary and design
CRW 323-001/580-002 Bookbuilding, Fall 2008, page 4
principles gleaned in this course. The depth and perceptiveness of comments in relation to our
course goals will help determine your participation grade.
• Conferences. I strongly suggest you avail yourself of time during my office hours for a midsemester progress meeting, as well as anytime problems or questions regarding your course
progress arise. I would be happy to arrange conferences by appointment as well. I try to
respond promptly to e-mail (be courteous, be clear, and include a salutation and signature) sent
from your UNCW address.
• Assignments. All design assignments begin with pencil and paper and result in a digital
file for which you will need appropriate hard-copy materials and properly labeled digital
media. Homework projects are due at the beginning of the class session. Your name, the class
number, and the date must appear on every assignment; assignments lacking this
information will not be accepted.
Quizzes are not meant to stump you. In order to keep up with the fast-paced course, you’ll
need to know and use desktop publishing vocabulary. Do your reading and mark any terms
you don’t recognize for review. Quizzes cover terminology and concepts from class lectures and
textbooks.
• Chapbook. For your culminating course project you’ll produce a short edition of a finished,
bound chapbook, 24 to 64 pages in length. Start exploring ideas early in the semester, and feel
free to discuss them as they develop. You’ll produce your chapbook using the lab’s printing and
bindery resources. Your final chapbook can be either perfect bound or saddle-stitched. I will
distribute more specific instructions later in the course.
All design projects must use the tools and techniques taught in this class and must be the
student’s original concept and work (with the exception of stock art and public-domain
materials, for which proper permissions for use are obtained), done exclusively for this class.
(For your chapbook text, you are welcome—and encouraged—to use writing you have done as
assignments in other classes or workshops.)
For each assignment, plan on turning in a disk folder with all files, graphics, and fonts, and
producing at least two copies of the printed piece (one for me, one for you). This is your
opportunity to produce something on a professional level for your portfolio and should
represent your best thinking, planning, and execution!
• Portfolio. You are encouraged to keep a portfolio of your semester’s work, so you can
gauge growth and improvement over a period of weeks and continue to build on projects in
stages. I welcome revised assignments.
Computer and lab information
• Computer procedures and etiquette. You will be learning computer skills, and putting them to
use, on Macintosh computers in a shared laboratory space. Other classes meet in the Pub Lab,
and other students work on the same computers in non-class hours.
All students must be respectful of each others’ time and careful with each others’ work files.
For this reason, following a few computer conventions is especially important.
• File naming. At the start of the term you will choose a workstation and create a user folder
on it labeled Lastname, Firstname. Within it you will create a folder for each of your projects.
CRW 323-001/580-002 Bookbuilding, Fall 2008, page 5
Your individual files must be named Lastname P1, where “Lastname” is yours, “1” (“2,” etc.) is
the assignment number. On large projects, it’s good to keep working versions of your files—you
can add a letter to the end of your filename to distinguish which is the newest. You must also
gather all relevant source files—text and images—into each project folder.
• File management. I will distribute assignment files throughout the semester. You will
rename each file with your own name, as instructed above.
Files that you are using or creating for your own assignments should reside in your folder
on the desktop of your workstation during class sessions but must be backed up to your external
media at the end of every class session (or before you leave any other work session in the lab).
Do not do your work directly on your own disk—this slows down computer performance,
increases chances of losing data, and makes it more likely you’ll forget which version is most
recent. You would also be wise to then back up your files in a second location (for instance,
copying them to your home computer), and to keep older versions as you revise and refine your
work. Diligent adherence to these guidelines will protect the hard work you’ve invested.
At the end of each day’s session, you must close all files and quit all applications. You need
not shut down your computer.
• Safety and security of people and equipment. Observance of the college’s operational and
safety policies is especially important because this class is conducted entirely in the lab setting.
—Do not plug or unplug power cords or network cables attached to any of the equipment
without consulting the professor or lab assistant.
—Observe all posted safety precautions around computers and bindery equipment.
—Do not attempt to change the configuration of system software, desktop appearance, or
applications on lab machines, except as instructed in class. Even if you know what you’re doing,
changes to interface, screen appearance, menus, and the like can be very disorienting to other
users.
—Needless to say—but I’ll say it anyway—do not use the lab computers for any activity
that violates University policy, or that is offensive to your fellow students.
—The lab is kept locked except during class and during designated lab times (generally, 9–5
Mon.–Thurs. during the academic semester, except for your class time and academic holidays).
Access to the lab is limited to those enrolled in publishing classes and/or working on
publishing projects.
—Do not bring any food or drink (except a closed container of water) into the lab area.
Please don’t put me in the position of embarrassing you by asking you to put your snacks away.
• Class time and other resources. Students must devote class time exclusively to class projects;
computers may not be used for unrelated tasks, including checking e-mail or personal
messaging, downloading files, or handling registration matters. This rule applies to time
before and after class as well.
Use paper and other consumable supplies judiciously, and for course-related work only.
Check, preview, and preflight your work onscreen carefully before printing; after printing,
proof carefully and enter all corrections before reprinting (and especially before printing
multiples).
Print multiples only when your assignment requires it; otherwise, use photocopying
resources elsewhere on campus.
• Lab time. It is not possible to complete assignments within class hours. As mentioned
previously, students should sign up for one additional “lab” credit hour of Directed
CRW 323-001/580-002 Bookbuilding, Fall 2008, page 6
Independent Study. Be aware that the lab is used by other classes and students at various times.
Open lab hours will be posted and will be regularly kept unless I notify the class otherwise in
advance.
• Lab assistants. Graduate assistants with training in bookbuilding are available to help you
during posted lab hours and may occasionally attend class sessions to assist. They bring varied
knowledge to the Pub Lab and are excellent resources for advancing your own understanding
of publishing. Do be respectful of their own demands as students, however; their function is
primarily to help guide you in technical aspects of computer systems or applications, not to
teach what you should have learned in class or to rescue you from procrastination.
CRW 323-001/580-002 Bookbuilding, Fall 2008, page 7
CRW 323 / CRW 580-002 Book building
Fall 2008
Schedule of assignments, preparation, and due dates
Date
What we’re doing in this class
Thurs
8/21
•Introduction to course and each other; discussion of
class and student goals
•Discuss text books for course
•Macintosh computer basics, Lab procedures,
navigation, equipment
Subject to minor adjustments, according to pace and needs of
class
What to read/do
BEFORE this class
•Set up personal folders, e-mail communications
Thurs
8/28
•Begin set up for blank book demonstration
•Discussion of books
•What is bookbuilding? How does it relate to “desktop
publishing”?
•Blank book demonstration continued (production)
•InDesign basics; menu-by-menu orientation
•Begin P1 (Words in type)
Thurs
9/4
•Quiz Q1 (The Design Environment)
•Understand principle: (text + graphics) x grid =
document
•Design principles – C.R.A.P.
•Completion of P1 (Words in type) in class; discussion
Thurs
9/11
Design Principles and typography
•In class exercise: design principles at work
•Working with fonts and typography
•Anatomy of a book spread
•Dashes, spaces, and punctuation
Working with fonts and typography
•Anatomy of Type
•Leading, kerning, and tracking
•Paragraph construction and formatting
•Importing, linking, unlinking, and wrapping text
•Quiz Q2 (Typography)
•Discuss type specimens
•Reviewing traditional parts of a book
•Discovering artist books, binding structures
•Introduce P4
•Multi-page documents: Pages Palette, master pages
style sheets
•Quiz Q3 (Bookbuilding)
•Scanning images
•Photoshop basics
•Working with color: black-and-white; spot color; full
(process) color
Thurs
9/18
Thurs
9/25
Thurs
10/2
InDesign CS3, chs. 1–2
Non-Designer’s Design Book, ch. 1
•Bring to class a favorite book to
examine and discuss (we will
consider physical attributes
rather than text, so choose an
interesting example)
•InDesign CS3, ch. 3 (text basics)
•Non-Designer’s, chs. 2–6
•HOW article, Linzie Hunter
•”Pictorial Organization” handout
•Project P1 (Words in type) due
by end of class
Non-Designer’s Design Book, chs. 9–
12
•Project P2 (Book analysis)
written report due
•InDesign CS3, ch. 4–5 (text basics)
•How to Make Books Intro., chs. 1-2
•Discovering Artists Books
handout
•InDesign CS3, chs. 9-11
•Project P3 (Type specimen) due
Non-Designer’s Design Book, ch. 7
InDesign CS3, chs. 6-8, 15
Photoshop CS3 chs. 1-3
CRW 323-001/580-002 Bookbuilding, Fall 2008, page 8
Thurs
10/9
Thurs
10/16
Thurs
10/23
Thurs
10/30
Mon
11/3Fri. 11/7
Thurs
11/13
Thurs
11/20
Thurs
11/27
Thurs
12/4 (or
a day/
time
TBAthis
meeting
may be
in the
evening)
•Quiz Q4 (Graphics)
•Working with graphics; file formats continued
•In class exercise: text as image, visual typography
•P4 workshop: design pages and work with type;
design cover.
•Discussion of P4 designs
•Offset printing and bindery processes (tour of local
print shop)
Photoshop CS3 chs. 4, 13
How to Make Books chs. 3-5
•Preparing text and images for layout
•Editing manuscript/format
•The basics of book design
•Book covers (John Gall)
•Planning/workshop for P5 (chapbook)
•P5 Workshop: design pages and work with type
•Preflight, by end of class: print reader spreads to
exchange with a partner over Writers’ Week
•Handouts: “The basics of book
design” and essay by Richard
Eckersley
•Bring text for your chapbook (P5)
to class on disk/flash drive
•Interview with Random House
book designer Peter Mendelsund at
designrelated.com/news/feature_
view?id=16
No class meeting. The lab will
open on an abbreviated schedule,
so you’ll have time to work on
your chapbook.
•Before class make sure that you
have exchanged page proofs with a
partner, and your partner has
completed a proofreader’s checklist
WRITERS’ WEEK
•Watch the CRW website for detailed schedule; attend
two sessions, including the publishing panel. Ask
questions about publishing.
•Produce final chapbook copies
(We can’t print/produce all sixteen students’ books in
one session. Please plan ahead.)
•Produce final chapbook copies
•Gather/clean up files for archiving
•Leave your P4-5 assignments clearly labeled in your
user file. TAs will archive & clean computers.
No class – Thanksgiving Holiday
•FINAL CLASS will be a public “artist talk” in which
you read a short excerpt from and then formally
present the design and typography selections for your
book. One copy will be on display as part of an
accompanying exhibition. The presentation will count
for 10% of the final course grade. Remember to
incorporate your bookbuilding, typography, craft, and
binding vocabulary.
•Project P4 (Zine) due
How to Make Books chs. 6-7
•Project P5 (Chapbook), edition of
five copies due by 5 p.m. on
Tuesday, November 25
CRW 323-001/580-002 Bookbuilding, Fall 2008, page 9
UNCW Publishing Laboratory
Permission to Use Student Work and Photographs
Fall 2008
Name
Course/Term
E-mail address
Mailing address
The work of students can be very helpful and instructive in future teaching situations and in
demonstrating the range of our department’s work. Thus, I would like to ask your permission
to use the project(s) you created for the above UNCW course for such purposes. You are not
required to give this permission, and if you do, you may choose whether you want your name
to be identified on it. If you allow such permission, please complete this form and return it to
me.
If in the future we are interested in using your work for other purposes (such as inclusion in a
publication whose primary purpose is not related to teaching), I will contact you to request
further permission.
Emily Smith
I hereby grant permission for the student work I produced in ________________ (class) to be
published, __ with credit to me / __ without identifying me, for instructional and educationrelated purposes.
___________________________________________
Signature
___________________________
Date