Author: Gracie Thornham

The group project addressed the critical question ‘Who can afford to be sustainable? And at what cost?’. The project can be accessed here.

I have decided to develop the body of work further using the extra time provided from my adjusted deadline. I am interested in the line of enquiry that emerged during the project. I will explore the critical questions that the project addressed more thoroughly. Through a more detailed analysis of UAL’s waste strategy, I have attempted to weave together the threads of the group project. This restructured and developed body of work can be found here.

Within the following document, our names are listed on the bottom left of the page. These are highlighted to reflect the different group members that contributed to the work on the respective page.

Reference List:

Calvino, I. (1972) Invisible Cities. Translated from the Italian by W. Weaver. London: Vantage Books.

Eames, C. and Eames. R. (1977) Powers of Ten and the Relative Size of Things in the Universe [Film]. Eames Office, Los Angeles.

Matos, A. (2022) Who can afford to be critical?: An Inquiry Into What We Can’t Do Alone, as Designers, and Into What We Might Be Able to Do Together, as People. Eindhoven: Set Margins’.

Meure, E. (2025) Material Circularity at UAL. Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/ pdf_file/0033/477618/Material-circularity-sum- mary-report-2025.pdf (Accessed: 22 February 2026).

Tsing, A. (2020) Feral Atlas. Available at:  https://feralatlas.org/ (Accessed: 18 February 2026).

The language surrounding bookbinding has guided my iterative experimentation into three distinct chapters. The first chapter looks at ‘The Bind’. This body of work is characterised by building foundational knowledge about specialist bindings, specifically Singer Sewn, Side Sewn, Japanese Binding and Three Hole Sewn.

The second chapter investigates the role of ‘The Binder’ more thoroughly. The binder is often overlooked within the practice of bookbinding, which is being exacerbated by the growth of industrial book manufacturing. The trace that the binder once would have left from their craftsmanship is being standardised, automated, and consequently, eradicated.

The third chapter engages with the concept of ‘The Bound’. The term ‘bound’ has many different meanings. The definitions of relevance to this project are:

1. ‘a territorial limit; a boundary’

2. ‘going or ready to go towards a specified place’

3. ‘past and past participle of bind’.

I investigated what processes are bound within bookbinding (according to the second definition of the word).

The language surrounding my work has helped to iteratively rephrase the critical questions I am attempting to answer throughout my studio project.

Working quickly and intuitively, 12 iterations were created by binding the architectural drawings of my family home under the lens of the selected terms; constraint, trace, trace, sequence and friction.

This blog post acts as a catalogue of the iterative experiments into the bound outcomes within bookbinding.

CONSTRAINT

The first set of experiments looked into the term constraint. Here, the pages were folded and bound so that the sectional drawings were partially concealed, forcing the reader to engage more deeply with the object to view the content.

The second iteration saw the binding following moments of constraint within the architecture of the home, as well as the architectural notation. Dimensions on the drawing are bound, as they cannot be changed, therefore they are amplified here within the binding itself.  

Similarly to the first experiment, this interpretation of constraint focused on the folding of the paper to constrain the knowledge that was visible. The notion of constraint was stitched into the investigation as the binding followed fixed architectural elements, such as the roofline of the building.

TRACE

Building upon the techniques used in the first set of iterations, this experiment exclusively bound the drawings together along the spaces within the home that my family have altered since moving in. Trace of human life, and our own experience of the house, has fuelled this trial. 

Similarly to the previous investigation, this iteration adopts a similar methodology, albeit looser. This means that the binding is not so rigid and is further away from our understanding of conventional bookbinding practices.

Within architecture, trace has an alternate meaning which can be defined by  the  structure used to subdivide windows into sections. In this spirit, this  inquiry focuses on tracing the locations of the windows in plan onto over  areas of the building.

SEQUENCE

Folding is a key process within bookbinding, and heavily alters the readers experience of the book. The folding of this publication sequences the information, concealing large portions of the drawings.

Interpreting the term more literally, this trial sequentially binds together the pages of the booklet in a concertina format. 

Within architecture, sequence is defined by the ordered progression of spaces, experiences or elements within a building. This iterative investigation follows the natural entrance sequence around my family hone, initially entering at the front door, moving through the ground floor, then traversing the stairs and exploring the first floor. The binding of the architectural plan amplified this sequential journey through the space.

FRICTION

The first iteration looked into the friction caused by the process of binding itself. A three hole sewn technique was used to bind the pages together. The publication was subsequently taken apart and put back together ten times, revealing the friction caused by the process. 

The second version of friction sliced the pages along lines that correlated to friction within the architecture, such as level changes, external boundaries and roof eaves.

The final iteration creates friction as the pages are turned, as the binding is displaced every few pages. The booklet does not turn easily, creating friction between the object and the reader. 

Paul Bailey delivered an exceptional cross year studio, focused on the theme Text & Writing. We were tasked with three quick exercises, which explored who we are in conversation with, through our projects and practices. Ahead of the session, we were asked to select ten key references that are influencing our current practice, alongside a brief statement about the impact they have on our work.

Banham, R. (1955) ‘The New Brutalism,’ The Architectural Review, 118 (708), pp. 335-361. 

The architectural theory proposed by Reyner Banham in ‘The New Brutalism’ (1955) was translated into the field of type design in my previous studio project. 

Rams, D. (2021) Ten Principles for Good Design. Munich: Prestel Publishing.

A key text which is guiding current experimentation into whether design can be both honest and unobtrusive. 

Fenner Paper. (2009) Size, Format, Stock. Tonbridge: Fenner Paper.

This publication is the starting point for my current studio project which is reflecting on the skill and craftsmanship of bookbinding.

Gysin, B. and Boroughs. W. (1978) The Third Mind. New York: The Viking Press.

This text is a reflection on techniques introduced by William Boroughs. His cut-up technique has been adopted and reimagined within my iterative exercises to resequenced the bookbinders tools.

McLachlan, F. et al. (2015) Colour Strategies in Architecture. Translated by I. Boyd White. Basel: Farbstrategien in der Architektur. 

My interest lies as the intersection between architecture and communication design. Colour Strategies in Architecture explores graphical representations of conventional architectural concepts.

Steyerl, H. (2012) ‘In Defense of the Poor Image’ in The Wretched of the Screen. Berlin: Sternberg Press, pp. 31-45. 

The writing style of Steyerl is accessible, yet the fundamental arguments are vastly complex and interwoven into topical social issues.

Mill, A. and Jones. L. (2019) Exile’s Letters. Oslo: Mill & Jones.

Exile’s Letters is another example of interdisciplinary design, with a focus on both graphics and architecture. There is strong relation between the text and illustrations.

Forensic Architecture. (2024) The Grenfell Tower Fire: Situated Testimonies. Available at:  https://forensic-architecture.org/investigation/the-grenfell-tower-fire-situated-testimonies (Accessed: 25 January 2026).

The practice has a continues and sustained influence over my practice, as they perfectly marry architecture and graphic design with a focus on social justice. 

Anderson, B. (2006) ‘Census, Map, Museum’ in Imagined Communities. London: Verso, pp.163-185. 

This was a key text that is presentative of a turning point within my own writing, as I grasped the concept of creative writing within the field of graphic communication design. 

Tsing, A. (2020) Fetal Atlas. Available at:  https://feralatlas.org/ (Accessed: 25 January 2026).

Anna Tsing reimagined collective idea around what academic literature is, with the illustration and composition of the atlas guiding the user to different article and journals.

FIRST EXPERIMENT

The first experiment challenged us to create a tableau with pages, clippings, extracts, photographs and diagrams from our selected references.

SECOND EXPERIMENT

The second experimented turned the focus into creating a slideshow of key extracts of text. I decided to put the texts in conversation with one another by introducing new references on the right side of each slide. 

THIRD EXPERIMENT

The third experiment refined the notion of putting the references in conversation with one another by pulling out key words that reoccur across the texts. 

The workshop with Paul Bailey was a practical approach to identify and reflect on the references that are currently influencing my work. Each piece of writing that I consume acts as a footnote within my life and helps mould my creative practice.

Reference List:

Anderson, B. (2006) ‘Census, Map, Museum’ in Imagined Communities. London: Verso, pp. 163-185. 

Banham, R. (1955) ‘The New Brutalism,’ The Architectural Review, 118 (708), pp. 335-361. 

Fenner Paper. (2009) Size, Format, Stock. Tonbridge: Fenner Paper.

Forensic Architecture. (2024) The Grenfell Tower Fire: Situated Testimonies. Available at:  https://forensic-architecture.org/investigation/the-grenfell-tower-fire-situated-testimonies (Accessed: 25 January 2026).

Gysin, B. and Boroughs. W. (1978) The Third Mind. New York: The Viking Press.

McLachlan, F. et al. (2015) Colour Strategies in Architecture. Translated by I. Boyd White. Basel: Farbstrategien in der Architektur.

Mill, A. and Jones. L. (2019) Exile’s Letters. Oslo: Mill & Jones.

Rams, D. (2021) Ten Principles for Good Design. Munich: Prestel Publishing.

Steyerl, H. (2012) ‘In Defense of the Poor Image’ in The Wretched of the Screen. Berlin: Sternberg Press, pp. 31-45. 

Tsing, A. (2020) Fetal Atlas. Available at:  https://feralatlas.org/ (Accessed: 25 January 2026).

DRAFT ONE

While you’re working on your copy, articulate (in writing) the key critical questions that emerge through this exploration. Discuss how the project that you’re copying raises these questions and write a proposal for a studio-based experiment that would allow you to explore them further.

The initial copying exercise saw a recreation of aspects of ‘Size, Format, Stock’ produced by Fenner Paper and Studio8 Design (2009). The publication was included within the Bookbinding Toolkit, provided by Central St Martins to every MA Graphic Communication Design student. The information within the publication was manipulated and divided into four explorations, each looking at a distinct bookbinding process. Elements of the graphical style of the Fenner Paper (2009) infozine were replicated, and the simple illustration style was adopted to visually represent the binding processes.

The iterative exercise of copying raised critical questions about the hidden labour of bookbinding. The craftsmanship and skill required for bookbinding cannot be seen in the final output, as the labour is concealed within the spine and gutter. Moreover, the bookbinders toolkit leaves no trace, thus exacerbating the elusiveness of the binder. This raised further questions about what is seen and what is left unseen. ‘Size, Format, Stock’ (Fenner Paper, 2009) does not address the handcraft aspect of bookbinding, and the binder themselves remains out of the conversation. Is a successful bookbind one that has no trace? 

Dieter Rams’s ‘Ten Principles for Good Design’ (2021) suggests that ‘good design is unobtrusive’. Within the field of bookbinding, this seems to be the desired outcome. This notion of design being inconspicuous sits at odds with Rams’s sixth principle; that ‘good design is honest’. Can design be both unobtrusive and honest? How does this translate into the process of bookbinding?

It is impossible to uproot ‘Size, Format, Stock’ (Fenner Paper, 2009) from its original context; the Bookbinding Toolkit. Shared knowledge of bookbinding is therefore considered as a critical tool within the Bookbinding Toolkit. In an attempt to create honest design, the studio-based experiment will focus on revealing the tools that are used within the process of bookbinding. This process will attempt to unravel the fixed notions of bookbinding, and rebuild the process with an emphasis on celebrating the craftsmanship of the binder.

DRAFT TWO

Identify a reference from the reading list that you can use as a lens through which to view and analyse your project. Then create a second draft of your writing that advances your enquiry in response to this new context.

Ronald Barthes (1977) proposes the idea that the role of the author ceases to exist within his seminal work ‘The Death of the Author’. Barthes’s (1977) primary argument is that the author has been suppressed in the interests of writing. The notion that writing is the author’s cohesive voice is discredited, suggesting that we have entered an era where the role of the author is a steward of pre-existing texts. Barthes (1977) proposes that the author merely ‘holds together, in a single field, all the traces by which the text is constituted’.

Within my Methods of Iterating studio project, there has been an astute focus on the role of the binder. The tension between the craftsmanship and lack of trace of this craftsmanship within the process of bookbinding has been explored thus far. Barthes (1977) raises critical questions about whether the role author has been reduced to a curator. If the author’s sole duty is to ‘blend and clash’ (Barthes, 1977) others writing, then what does this mean for the role of the binder? 

The binder weaves and stitches text into a coherent and sequential narrative: Is this not the same role as the author? Barthes (1977) reaches a climax within his argument stating: ‘the birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the author’. The concept that the author must die is rooted in the ongoing degradation of the role of the author to only a curator. If this logic if applied to my studio brief, then one could say that the role of the author as a curator also must die, to enable the craftsmanship of the binder to flourish. If the binder is reinstated as an important figure within society, then there is no demand for the author.

The birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the author, on condition of the resurrection of the binder.

Furthermore, Barthes (1977) highlights that ‘in the multiplicity of writing, everything is to be disentangled, nothing deciphered’. Writing has become a linear expression of an interwoven mesh of others ideas. If this were not the case, how would the reader decipher the writing? If knowledge is not granted, then the text will be constrained. The reader will have to understand, scrutinise and interpret the writing for themselves. The notion of constraint is a key theme explored within my studio project, Methods of Iterating. The process of binding conceals and reveals different aspects of the information shared; a constraint on knowledge. 

DRAFT THREE

For the third draft of your written response, render your text using the tool or medium that you’ve been exploring during this project. This is both a visual and intellectual exercise. How does the text and its meaning change when you translate it in this way?

For the third draft of my written response, I rendered the second draft of text using the process of bookbinding. Similarly to all my other experiments through the Methods of Iterating project, the binding process exclusively used the equipment included within the CSM Bookbinding Toolkit. 

The text was stitched together four times, each correlating to the terms which I have discovered to be bound within the process of bookbinding: constraint, friction, sequence and trace. This iterative experiment plays with the parameters that define bookbinding, disturbing with the readability of the text as different elements are concealed and revealed. 

The rendering reinforces the notion that constraint, friction, sequence and trace are bound outcomes within bookbinding, whilst simultaneously scrutinising the meaning of these terms. The fixed outcomes have been reimagined to produce a binding that is no longer conventional. Does that these outcomes are no longer bound?
 

Reference List:

Barthes, R. (1977) ‘The Death of the Author’ in Image, Music, Text. London: Fontana Press, pp. 143-148.

Fenner Paper. (2009) Size, Format, Stock. Tonbridge: Fenner Paper.

Rams, D. (2021) Ten Principles for Good Design. Munich: Prestel Publishing.

Harun Farocki’s (2009) In Comparison served as a key reference within my studio project. Farocki’s split screen video documents the procurement of clay bricks across Burkina Faso, Germany, France, Austria, India and Switzerland. The work is a commentary on the disparity of global labour, with the footage illustrating industrial material manufacturing in direct conversation with manual, labour-intensive processes. 

Reflecting the form of Harry Farocki’s (2009) In Comparison, I set out to create a split screen video representing my own experience of the bookbinding process. I juxtaposed by own documentation of dismantling and restitching a book from 1905 against the automated process documented in SatisFactory Press’s (2024) Youtube video The Fascinating Mass Production Process of Books in a Chinese Factory. The audio was spliced and overlayed on top of the videos, creating tension between the two processes. The outcome was uncomfortable and distressing as it illustrated the scale of mass produced books, as well as the threat for the existence of the hand bookbinder.

To access the split screen video please click on the image above or follow the link below:

https://vimeo.com/1163076639?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci

Reference List:

Farocki, H. (2009) In Comparison [Video]. Tate: Liverpool.

SatisFactory Process (2024) ‘The Fascinating Mass Production Process of Books in a Chinese Factory.’ 

Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGcqyR2hK_w

Following discussions during my week 1 tutorial, I felt that my Methods of Translating needed  redirection. Up until this point, my work had primarily focused on architectural map-making as a graphic design tool. In attempts to broaden my horizons and begin the process of interweaving the disciplines of graphic design and architecture, I decided to attempt to apply an architectural theory onto a graphic design process. 

This altered my line of enquiry, and informed the overarching question: ‘What does it mean to make a Brutalist font?’. When you google “Brutalist Font”, a plethora of typefaces bounce back. As I scrolled through the pre-existing ideas of Brutalist type design, I noticed that very few of adhere to Reyner Banham’s (1955) definition of Brutalism.

The original type design from The Architectural Review article acted as the starting for my investigation into a Brutalist type face. Through a process of iterative redesign, three Brutalist type faces were created, all building upon the form of the previous. These three type faces followed Banham’s (1955, p.357) definition of Brutalism – ‘1, Formal legibility of plan; 2, clear exhibition of structure, and 3, valuation of materials for their inherent qualities ‘as found’.’ 

Reference List:

Banham, R. (1955) ‘The New Brutalism,’ The Architectural Review, 118 (708), pp. 335-361.

MyFonts. Brutalist Fonts. Available at: https://www.myfonts.com/pages/tags/brutalist-fonts/?srsltid=AfmBOorM9xuxbXGgjJBa_7jrZC-LI_zjnaKmxUgyBUwcl7fSz2Qra7cU (Accessed: 11 November 2025).

The New Brutalism by Reyner Banham (1955) was my selected material to translate. The journal article was published in The Architectural Review in 1955, and explored the earliest definition of the architectural movement. The true definition of Brutalism has been shrouded in mystery since its inception, with architectural critics rarely agreeing on a set of defining characteristics. 

Banham’s (1955) writing coincided with the rise of architects Alison and Peter Smithson. The Smithon’s are considered to be the founders of Brutalism, as they began to experiment with architectural detailing, where the materials retain their inherent qualities ‘as found’ (Banham, 1955).

Hunstanton School by Alison and Peter Smithson is considered by many as the first Brutalist building, as it adheres to Banham’s (1955) definition of The New Brutalism. I focused my observation onto Hunstanton School.

My initial method of investigation looked at redacting the text, leaving only the content about Hunstanton School exposed. 

Using the visual language of the redacted article, I began to see architectural patterns within the imagery. I subsequently translated the visual imagery of the text into semi-conventional architectural drawings. I opted to unfold the facade elevations around the architectural floor plan, creating the textures of the materials using the fabric of the redacted article. 

Reference List:

Banham, R. (1955) ‘The New Brutalism,’ The Architectural Review, 118 (708), pp. 335-361.

Henderson, N. (2001) The charged void: Architecture – Alison and Peter Smithson [Photograph]. Available at: https://hicarquitectura.com/2023/07/alison-and-peter-smithson-hunstanton-school/(Accessed: 11 November 2025).