This project was my final assignment for the Book Design course within my Visual Communication studies. As part of the program, I was studying graphic design, book design, and photography-and this was the first time everything came together into one piece. The brief was open, but the expectation was to take a book from concept all the way to a finished physical outcome. I decided to take it fully on myself-to create a photography coffee table style book from start to finish, including the design, production, and hand-binding.

For the content, I chose to work with my own film photography, taken over a few years while living and traveling across Asia. At the time I took the photos, I wasn’t thinking about a book at all. But when I started this project, it felt like the most natural place to begin-taking something that already existed, and bringing it to life.

The design part actually came quite naturally. I went through all the images, selected what felt right, and started building the layouts-moving things around, placing images next to each other, seeing what works and what doesn’t. I love working with images and how they communicate when placed next to one another. In some grids I created almost an illusion that the photographs continue each other, or that they are actually the same image or view cropped-but they weren’t. It wasn’t the hard part.

The real process started when I moved into making the book. I had to figure out everything-how to print it, how to fold it, how to stitch it, how to actually turn it into a physical object.

I found a high-quality print shop and visited them a few times to make sure everything was done properly. When we design books, we usually think page by page, the way a reader flips through them. But the anatomy of a book is completely different. If it’s stitched and not perfect binding, signatures are created and nested into each other, then stitched together. In mass production, computers handle this easily-but doing it manually took time to fully understand, especially to avoid reprinting too many times, since the paper and printing were expensive.

I remember going through their paper selection book, flipping through different options and actually feeling them-imagining how they would look and behave. I wanted something that didn’t feel generic. I also learned about grain direction, and how it affects the way paper folds and behaves, which meant some papers I initially liked couldn’t be used.

I had the idea to use transparent paper for the chapter openings, so the title of each country would sit on top of the image behind it. But the paper was too delicate to stitch, so I had to find another solution and ended up gluing it onto the first page of each chapter.

Then came the stitching. Learning how to bind the pages together, how tight it needs to be, how to keep everything straight so the book doesn’t shift. It’s very easy for it to go wrong at this stage-and once it does, you feel it immediately.

The cover was a whole process on its own. I wanted it to be wrapped in linen and printed on, and I found out there was only one shop that had what I needed-about an hour and a half away. It turned out to be a place that hand-binds bible books. So I went all the way there just to get the materials.

Printing on the linen was another challenge. The print shop I used for the inside didn’t do fabric printing, so I had to find a different place that specialised in it. I was very short on time, so I had to find someone the same day. Luckily, I found someone kind enough to squeeze my print into their queue. I printed two different versions, so I can decide which one I prefer and just to be safe.

Making the cover itself was another process-working with cardboard, figuring out the spacing for the folds, gluing the fabric properly, and making sure everything sits and closes the way it should. Then building it-cutting, measuring, stitching, gluing-making sure it all fits together and actually holds the book.

Then it was about assembling everything. Pages, stitching, cover-making sure it all comes into one piece that actually works.

At the very last moment, I decided to add one more element-a vintage map of Asia. My dad told me my grandfather had a collection of maps in the attic. When we found them, they were incredible. I first tried to scan and print one, but it didn’t feel right. Then we realised there were two copies of the Asia map, so I used one of the originals and added it at the beginning of the book, folded inside the cover.

The whole process took about five days from idea to final book, as I had a deadline. It was intense, but also very immersive-I was fully inside it.

It was a lot of hands-on work. Printing, folding, stitching, binding, building-not on a screen, but physically doing it.

By the end, it felt completely different from anything I had done before. Not just something I designed, but something I actually created from scratch.

This project changed the way I see books. Because now I don’t just think about how they look-I understand how they’re built, how they hold together, and how they’re experienced in the hands.