Exercise 6: Folding and mocking up your book

There are two elements to this exercise - thinking about how you produce your publication, and making a smaller scaled down version as a mock up.

First, I created with scrap paper a small A6 mock-up by folding the paper and numbering the pages 1-8. I then unfolded the paper to see where the pages would sit.

Then I created a full-scale mock-up and folded four A4 sheets into A5. Once I unfolded the pages, I could see visually where the pages folded together.

Reflection

Physically folding the paper in a small-scale or full-scale mockup was very useful. By doing this, I can see where the content should be placed. I think it is also good practice to do this so you don't accidentally put the back cover on the first page, for example, and then have to deal with expensive printing mistakes!

I also found that by doing this physically, where to place the content is important. For example, a bigger gutter is needed so the binding process (especially if the book has a thick spine) doesn't lose text or images when the book is made.