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Lewis Chaplin: Loose Joints Publishing

The company runs a book shop and publishing business in the south of France with his wife Sarah. Everything is done in house as that is how they like their company to run. They like to work closely with the artist and understand the story, showing how the book can develop the narrativ, further details and future of the work with the creator.

'You make me feel mighty real' is a self created and published book by himself when he was 16. He believed that this book was the start of when he began to learn the technicalities of book making both digitally and physically.

'1419' is a project who started with him and his friend Alex, making publications and including a variety of artists. This book was a first step into the curation of other peoples work. Then from this project it made Lewis and Sarah start to think about format, sequence, materials, print techniques and how together they all form a feeling and atmosphere for the work. Adding extra elements can give a book its feeling and presence.

'Elemer' was a project that held a tension and the way that the book was narrated needed to present that. So they curated the book with uncoated pages in between 8/16 pages, this created a strutted and a rhythm that shown reoccurring images. He loves how they can help to abstract the meaning.


'dmycc' is a book that has 624 pages and is the largest book they have created to date. Including archive images of a renovation of a tunnel, when the space was being transformed into an exhibition area, the creator of the work got caught. He still enters into the tunnel to clean and maintain the space over the period of 10 years. So the book is the work and the work does not exist in any other format. They chose to use the colour dark blue as it resembles the mysterious concept of the book.


Tips ~

  • The use of blank pages and pauses with imagery following can add to the narrative of the book, when used correctly.

  • Books can be created in immediate response to something, to encapsulate the story.

  • Making careful relationships between pages, colours, textures, and details within the imagery, can help to form the sequence of the book.

  • The way in which the book is sealed or sold can be apart of the book, making a new connection and a new way of interaction with the viewer before opening to view the contents.

  • Text is a really important part of their books and they commission texts that have a parrell relationship with the narrative.

  • Dates are sometimes useful in a narrative to show the jump between past and present.

When photographing the book ~

This is a really important part of the process when creating a physical book as it showcases an online view of textures, feelings and the 'real' book. As now with more things online a lot more people view things digitally and they are still trying to sell the physical book so the presentation of them are crucial. So good strong lighting, consistent layouts and staging allows for a cohesive presentation of the final book to be presented online.


Interesting fact ~

Loose joints list what fonts, stock and all the details they have used on the book in the back of every single book they publish. As they believe this information should not be a secret, it allows not only themselves to go back and review the process to be able to replicate another book, but it also informs the viewer who possibly wants or needs to know specific information.


Website ~

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