RCA - MA Fashion

Over the years I have been lucky enough to have been involved in several of the catalogues for the RCA MA Fashion course. One particularly memorable job was the 2004 catalogue, the text of which was all on Offenbach Bible 50gsm, made up entirely of French Folded sections.


This year's catalogue is also exceptional. It is a 290x215mm format. It is "swiss bound" [for those of you who are unfamiliar, this is where the text block is section sewn and glued. Then binding tape is applied around the spine and then this text "block" is glued/bound into the inside back cover by a strip of glue running parallel to the spine. The spine of the actual cover is therefore "freestanding" and not glued to the cover so opens and sits completely flat] which is a lovely finish and brings a material/textile feel to the binding.


The book is cleverley divided into five sections using bright divider spreads- MW-WW-MK-WK-AF (Menswear, Womenswear... etc).

Design is by Mark El-khatib (mark.el-khatib@network.rca.ac.uk)


The superb repro and printing is by David Holyday
d.holyday@googlemail.com

...and now for the paper! The paper used for this project is StarFine White - 300gsm for the cover and 130gsm for the text. The colour reproduction is fantastic - although it goes without saying that it is as much to do with the originals and the repro treatment as it is with the paper!

http://www.rca.ac.uk/