I’ll Be Bound!

Image from Rebecca Newport, found on Flickr. Click for link.Yesterday at work I had a slightly unusual task: I had to create the book binding for some nineteenth century books used as props in MTC’s upcoming production of The Importance of Being Earnest.

This entailed printing onto canvas, using our large-format printer. The special roll of canvas is coated in paper in order to accept ink. This means that over time, if the objects are handled a lot, they will lose their matt appearance and become glossy.

I was given image files from the Costume Realiser Tracy Grant-Lord, but it proved no easy task to reproduce the desired ‘warm, peachy look’ that director Simon Phillips so admired, for the colours that came out of the printer in no way matched the laser prints I had been given for reference. I spent the entire morning colour-correcting in Photoshop and printing test samples, before finally managing to print very reasonable facsimiles that Tracy was thrilled with.