MFA Studio Course Project
Ever want to sample products to find out what you like, but also learn about them along the way? USEfull Books are a series of books that feature learning more about certain products and methods before you purchase or try them. USEfull Books contain samples of product styles to decide what you like before buying more.
Book topics consist of brewing beer, cooking barbecue, making coffee, car detailing, and more. Each book contains product pages with a tear-off page that has ingredients inside.
Project Prompt
Develop a project that has at its core a love of ink, paper and/or
printing.
Inspiration
If it wasn’t for seeing The Bible of BBQ as inspiration for this project, I would have never thought out the idea. The Bible of BBQ book is interactive and useful with actual pages of the book being a part of the process. (An example is a page that sharpens your cutting knife) The idea of making a book that is actually usefull was part of my goal for this project. The one thing I did not like about this book idea however is that for the most part it is a one time use book. I wanted to develop a book that is not something that sits on your shelf, but something you use as you go and can reuse. I then developed the idea into a series of book mockups that feature product samples to try while learning about the book’s topic.
The Idea
My original idea was a paper that was actual hops and would dissolve into a boil when brewing beer. I needed to contact the experts to see if it was scientifically possible to produce “hop” paper. I contacted a few leading companies who create a variety of water dissolvable papers/films and edible papers. A company replied which produces disolvable paper/plastic wrap. They thought this was a really interesting idea, but at this time can’t produce something like this due to food regulations. I also contacted a brewing supply company and they also agreed that keeping the hops fresh would be impossible. When they package hops they flush them with nitrogen to keep all oxygen out of the package. Any oxygen with the hops will decrease the freshness of the hops.
Development
I started researching ideas for the tear off pages for samples and came across a few options and purchased blank folders that I could print on.
I went with the name UseFull for the name of the book series(company) I felt this had a good double meaning for what this series offers and could later potentially offer. The books are both useful and provide some type of feeling full. I also came up with each book would be called The Book of _______. To give it some personalization. From there, I just began developing the page layout and style.