A concept-led publication, the handmade Ayacucho! Semana Santa! uses literary design conventions to guide the reader through photographic content. Paratext is fundamental, with the book employing a prologue to establish the Andean city’s genealogies and topology, while additional paratexts – a title page and page numbers – further support the reader. Physical guides – paper stock choice, paper folds and laser cuts – lead the reader through periods of disorientation, such as a bout of altitude sickness depicted in the second chapter. A self-ethnographic book, the digitally embroidered cover acts as a banner for my experiences in Ayacucho.
Here's a slice from the making of Ayacucho!:
A pilot project for a new book-design studio, Combind Press. I worked closely with founder and graphic designer Dominique Fletcher to deliver an artist’s book, a commercial publication and a curated exhibition.
My key objective was to build and prove the processes for Combind Press’s model: housing the artist/client in-studio to develop and action their brief will deliver the coherent, memorable design missing from Manchester’s conventional studios. I spent 17 days in the Andean city of Ayacucho, engaging with the community to generate the ethnographic, visual content for this pilot project.
I identified that Combind Press’s guiding policy of building closer relationshipswith their clients would increase their opportunity to sell esoteric, and often higher value, designs. During our pilot this strategic action of supplying high- value, unique design was leveraged in a different way, with G.F. Smith providing a paper sponsorship for 1600 sheets of large-format paper.
Using Combind Press’s involved model we had designed a book that required 8 differentpaperstocks. Rather than reducing the design to avoid a potential budget shortfall, we were able to successfully sell the esoteric design as an opportunity for an international paper mill to show its product in a unique light. This action reduced total project costs by 30%, and allowed our combined design vision to be met.
