The Surging News reporter Luo Xin
More than 200 days of planning, more than 40 processes, 40 days of production period... Today, when books have become quick-loading products on the industrial assembly line, a handmade version of "Blossoms" can be described as "outlier".
The surging news reporter learned that the novelist Jin Yucheng won the ninth Mao Dun Literature Award, "Blossoms", will be launched by the Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House to launch a commemorative edition of the collection, and on July 9, a crowdfunding platform will first release 800 limited "numbered books", including exquisite letter sets, author signatures, independent numbers and limited creative peripherals, and the group will be "formed" in one minute.
"Since its first edition in 2013, Blossom has been reprinted 47 times so far." Bi Sheng, president and editor-in-chief of Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House, told the surging news reporter, "This is a 'handmade version' of "Blossoms" created by ingenuity, which introduces handmade elements in all production links to the greatest extent. Teacher Jin Yucheng is also fully involved in the planning process, from the content of the version to the binding, paper, and craft details, all of which have been carefully considered and considered, it can be said that this edition of "Flowers" conveys the author and the publisher's pursuit of the aesthetic quality of the book, which is of great collectible value. ”
Take a closer look at this round-ridge hardcover "Blossom": the envelope uses 116g of high-end beautiful paper, mounted 3mm thick gray board, its earth cinnamon color contrasts with the dark blue book cover, the English title "blossoms shanghai" and a sentence "God does not sound, like everything is determined by me" are all designed for hot silver. The book is covered with 120g of Shang Xi pattern dark blue art color paper, framed 1.5mm thick gray board, and accompanied by Jin Yucheng's handwritten book title in large silver characters. Qian Zhen, the binding designer of the book, told the surging news reporter: "This dark blue art paper is a good embodiment of the content of the book - those old things in old Shanghai, with simple and complex, and introverted and generous. The grain on the paper is not monotonous, rich in texture, with hot silver, understated luxury. ”
Open the book, the title page is designed for large and small pages, and two pages can be viewed for one page. The text contains "books in the book", a biography written by Kim Woo-cheng for 170 flowery characters. This is divided into 20 embryos pocket small book, using 60g machine rice paper, the font is black and blue four colors, traditional vertical arrangement, by the typesetting factory master hand glued to the book, can be freely disassembled. Qian Zhen said that the biography of the character is the index of the whole book, and the design of the "book in the book" is to facilitate reading. There are also Mao Awards award words bookmarks and Jin Yucheng "Book Seal" book stamps, and the holes around the book tickets are precisely punched to restore the texture of the stamps and can be freely removed. "The book stamps and bookmarks look like special stamps because of the special process of the die-cutting stamp knife, which also echoes the interesting story of Betty and Abao stamp collecting in the First Chapter, which slightly subverts the conventional book form." Qian Zhen said.
In terms of illustrations, the 20 hand-drawn illustrations use anti-white treatment, dark background, white line outline, all of which are hand-glued by hand page by page of the layout factory master. In addition to these 20 hand-drawn illustrations, this edition of "Blossoms" also reveals for the first time the rare illustrations that Jin Yucheng made for "Blossoms" in his early years, two of which are as the inner pages of the character biography, and the other is in the form of a library ticket. There is also a character relationship diagram, which is designed with long pull pages to help readers understand the complicated character relationships in the book.
"To make such a book, the entire processing process includes nearly 20 processes such as pre-production, ps version, printing, die-cutting stamp holes, folding pages, page matching, locking money, adhesive backing, and hand-pasting pieces." Wei Xingli, deputy general manager of Artron Production, revealed to the surging news reporter that the number of people involved in each process reached hundreds of people, and the production cycle of the whole product took about 40 days, "especially the more than 20 sticky pages per book, the position of each sticky page has specific and precise requirements, and a large number of people with rich experience in handicraft are needed, and we are equipped with a professional and fixed manual production team for this purpose." The die-cutting stamp hole process on the inside page of the book is also very difficult to achieve, which is very rare in the industry, and there is no similar product on the market before. ”
He stressed that compared with the general printing materials, the rareness of this edition of "Flowers" is reflected in the two words of "handicraft": "Due to the demand for personalized paste, mechanized production cannot be realized, and the amount of manual production in the later period is relatively large, the time is long, and the requirements for manual workers are also high, and it can be said that each "Blossom" is different." ”
Editor-in-Charge: Chen Shihuai
Proofreader: Yan Zhang