Guest blog by student coproducers Bethany, Faye and Rebecca. Three graphic design students were offered an open brief to design a participatory artist book that reflected the creative and aesthetic ethos of the Finding Lines project. We're delighted with the result. "After creating work for the finding lines exhibition as part of one of our university projects, we were all excited to see what else we could design, and how we could engage the audience to draw through a publication. The 25 bespoke publications have been hand crafted by myself Rebecca Leam, Bethany Wootton and Faye Brooks. The publication has been printed using the risograph onto a 200gsm Fabriano paper. We used a variety of processes to produce the publication, including laser cutting to remove sections in the publication and cut out the envelopes. We chose to have the publication hidden away within an envelope to give a precious and bespoke feel which we also enhanced with a letter pressed edition number 1 to 25. To add a more handcrafted and delicate feel, which is one of the key aspects to the brief, we hand stitched elements of the design with thread. This includes the two pockets each holding 3 small cards with a cropped section of artwork and a personal quote on the reversed side, for each of the contributing artists. Small bags containing fragments of drawing materials influenced by the artists processes have also been hand stitched onto the publication, to allow the audience to make their own marks."
