Week 10

Now that I had an idea of what my portfolio could look like I needed to do some research into ways in which I could bind the pages and cover. As the portfolio would be quite thick I needed the binding to be wide enough so that the pages could still move freely.

I have had work bound recently by a local company, so I enquired as to whether they would be able to suggest any form of binding suitable for this application. I asked whether the portfolio could be bound using a wire binding method and they assured me that it could be done, as long as the machine that is used could punch through the thick card covers.

The previous binding I had done was for my Major Project. I had two copies of my dissertation bound using the thermal binding method. This method uses a heated machine to melt a resin in a pre-made cover. Once the resin is tacky the pages are placed into the cover and the whole thing is left on a cooling stand. As the resin cools it bonds to the page edges, securing them to the cover.


There are many ways in which books/portfolios can be bound. I wanted my portfolio to look professional, but it had to be functional. I have considered wire binding, plastic comb binding and thermal binding.

I was very impressed with the professional quality of the thermal binding on my my major project but I do not think it would look right with this application. It looks good with formal documents that have a uniform design but I would like something that looks a little more creative and in-keeping with the design.

Another consideration of mine was to use a plastic comb binding method. A machine is used to punch holes along the edges of each page and cover. The same machine then attachs a plastic comb to the pages to hold them together. This design is very functional, but again I do not think it is right for the portfolio theme.

The last option I looked into was wire binding. Looking at examples of wire binding I could see that it resembles the design of a generic sketchbook. I liked the idea of this design as it fits in with both the design of my PDP elements, as well as the theme of the group exhibition.

The method of wire binding is the same used to comb bind, just substituting the plastic comb for a wire comb. Although it is the same principle, they both give different effects.