Make Book: G.F Smith’s new bespoke book-printing service
We did a collective double take when a beautifully bound hardcover book landed on the Wallpaper.com desk bearing our online editor's name in white embossed lettering. No, she hadn't written that tell-all memoir after all. The volume was a prototype Make Book with a custom cover, care of the pioneering paper supplier G.F Smith.
Smith - which was recently rebranded by Made Thought to reflect nearly 130 years of selling paper - launched the Make Book service to improve on the current vogue for tailor-made creative printing. The operation distinguishes itself with access to premium bindings and paper stock the other ventures simply don't have. It follows a photographic printing process and silver halide technology, using professional Fuji papers. And the binding is done entirely by hand - each book works its way through a chain of seven employees, according to a making-of video set at the G.F Smith headquarters in Hull, UK.
Wallpaper's version has a two-tone, quarter-bound cover with embossed print in two colours. It opens perfectly flat, so you can design a panorama to run across the spine without losing anything at the fold - and it holds itself open on a desired page.
For this level of handcraft you will pay; the base price for a 20-page A4 book is £100. But it'll turn that memoir into a work of art for your shelves.
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox
-
Find yourself at Six Senses Kyoto, the brand's breathtaking Japan debut
Six Senses Kyoto opens its doors boasting tranquil, luxurious interiors by Blink Design Group
By Danielle Demetriou Published
-
Shigeru Ban’s mini Paper Log House welcomed at The Glass House
'Shigeru Ban: The Paper Log House' is shown at The Glass House in New Canaan, USA as the house museum of American architect Philip Johnson plays host to the Japanese architect’s model temporary home concept
By Adrian Madlener Published
-
Artist Mickalene Thomas wrestles with notions of Black beauty, female empowerment and love
'Mickalene Thomas: All About Love’, a touring exhibition, considers Black female representation
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Sir Kenneth Grange’s influential industrial designs are chronicled in a new book
‘Kenneth Grange: Designing the Modern World’ explores the life and work of the pioneering British industrial designer
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
LA gallery Blackman Cruz celebrates 30 years of ‘beauty, oddity, and specialness’
‘Beauty & Mischief: The Design Alchemy of Blackman Cruz’ is a new book that charts three decades of the LA antique and modern furniture gallery, with a foreword by Ryan Murphy
By Rosa Bertoli Published
-
From the spoon to the city: the design of Gianfranco Frattini
‘Gianfranco Frattini. Design 1955/2003’ is a new book chronicling the architect and designer’s work as well as his concept of designing ‘from the spoon to the city’
By Cristina Kiran Piotti Published
-
Inside Salvador Dalí’s eccentric Portlligat home
Salvador Dalí's eccentric Portlligat home is the subject of ‘Casa Dalí’, a new book by Apartamento with photography by Coco Capitán
By Rosa Bertoli Published
-
A new book charts the history of Black design
'Now You See Me! An Introduction to 100 Years of Black Design' is a new book by Charlene Prempeh covering fashion, architecture and design
By Shawn Adams Published
-
Ronan Bouroullec book merges art, design and everyday life
‘Ronan Bouroullec: Day After Day’, from Phaidon, is a visual inventory of the French designer’s work, artistic output and daily inspiration
By Rosa Bertoli Published
-
Arnold Schwarzenegger book launch rests on a Radical Design icon reimagined
This stand for the new Arnold Schwarzenegger book by Taschen was originally designed as a seating object, ‘Capitello’, by Franco Audrito’s Studio 65
By Rosa Bertoli Published
-
Rome Colosseum bookshop design is based on a light, modular system
The bookshops at Rome’s Colosseum are part of Migliore+Servetto’s new concept for Italian publishing house Electa
By Rosa Bertoli Published