Choosing Stock

Main Body Stock

My next design decision is to choose a relevant stock for the main content of my publication.

My first idea was to use a delicate stock as this would be informed by the delicateness of Japanese design. However, I decided against this as my book needs to be durable and weather resistant as it will be carried around by the user in all weather conditions. 

The stock has to work for both printing the characters and images onto. If the stock is too delicate or textured, the imagery wont come out well enough.

The stock can't be too thick as the book will have a number of pages and I want to avoid making the book to heavy or thick so that it can be carried around easier.

Inspired famous artist Yayoi Kosami and other Japanese art, the stock here includes a simple polka dot design that would suit the Japanese style of design throughout my book.

This stock, and the red one below, would work well as an opening page for decoration. However, it would make things overly complicated if I were to print my content onto it.

The combination of red and white would be recognised as the colours of the Japanese flag.

The Takeo Tola range of stock in the G F Smith book are Japanese style papers. They are delicate and soft to the touch. This would work well as my content stock, the only disadvantage would be that they are slightly textured and may effect the quality of print, especially the photos.

I've photographed stock at 80, 93 and 120 GSM to get a range of options. I think that a stock around 100 GSM would be ideal for my content as it wouldn't be too heavy but would allow for a sturdy and durable book.

I went down to the digital print room to investigate using traditional hand made Japanese paper. However, after finding out that it would cost me an arm and a leg to use, I have had to look else where. One idea is to invest in the hand made paper to use as decoration in the front/back of the book, maybe for the contents.

A major floor with this style of paper is that it's not durable and may tear if carried around.

IDEA

I am going to invest in some hand made Japanese stock that I will print the title of the book on as well as a typical Japanese pattern. This page will then feature after the front cover,  before the main body of content.