Work in progress: wood spool + calligraphy + letterpress

I'm working on a new product to launch for the holidays and it is something I had in mind for a long time. If you have been following our studio's projects for a while, you might remember the Calendarbook, with the measuring tape, designed in collaboration with Silvana Amato, under our imprint of Edizioni Almenodue. This project is the sequel of the same wood spool wrapped with paper. A few weeks ago I dreamed about the little spool, wrapped in calligraphy and I decided it was time to make it happen! I asked dear friend Susy to submit some of her beautiful calligraphy, and these are the first few steps of the design process, after many hours spent on InDesign for the overall layout, size and dimensions. Stay tuned for updates on the letterpress printing with Albertine Press, next week. I'm very excited about this new product and can't wait to move on to the next step and hopefully everything will be ready for the final assembling, soon. And last, I love taking photos with the new camera Canon EOS with a macro lens. It makes a world of different to take products shooting, but much to learn!

189 libri

Today is last day of a one week long exhibition, seminars and workshops 189 Libri, organized by Silvana Amato at the Biblioteca Angelica in Rome. All our limited editions and calendarbooks by Edizioni Almenodue were on view during the exhibition, along with several other work by Silvana's students from Universita` La Sapienza di Roma and her personal research around the theme of the design and making of the book. I'm very excited our collaborative work is part of the exhibition, but missing terribly to be there and listening the seminars! Some of the images below were taken during the hand-papermaking workshop "Diventare mastro cartaio" by Fabriano and the seminar "Autoritratto allo specchio" by Guido Scarabottolo. They all must have been incredibly interesting! The photography is by Alessio Macri` and more can be seen on the 189 Libri Tumblr page. Enjoy!

Calendarbook 2013 giveaway

In a few days we will have a giveaway in our studio, but if you can't come and take your own copy of the Calendarbook 2013, you can partecipate here on the blog or by sharing the post on facebook. Two winners will be selected separately, one from the blog and one from FB, on February 11th. I'd like to hear your opinion on our annual project. This Calendarbook is Number 14 in our collection! It is a collaboration with my old time friend Silvana Amato from Rome, Swiss type designer Sibylle Hagmann that kindly donated Cholla and Brooklyn based illustrator Steven Guarnaccia. We feel very lucky to have been working with such talents! In the photos you can see bits of the full project, from the very beginning, until completion. The Calendarbook is now hanging from the pipe in front of the studio window. I designed the mobile by cutting circles of paper out of my tea glass cup and decided to use the Wrapped Cotton in the design, even before the mobile came into shape. The same for the Merchant and Mills pins, we used for the glassine packaging closure. Cholla and The Men diving into Time by Gurnaccia completes the great layout design by Silvana. A true collaborative work! the Calendarbook is a limited edition, I'm sorry, not available for sale, but it is something we enjoy working on year, after year, for our long distance project. A labor of love, that we share with our clients, colleagues, designers and new contacts, every year. The Calendarbook, usually travels back to the U.S. in my suitcase, after it was offset printed on Fedrigoni Paper and dye cut in Rome by Futura Grafica. Assembled in our studio, completely by hand by Hillary Deane. I hope you will enjoy it too and good luck for the giveaway! Come to visit us this Saturday, from 11 to 4 and meet us all, if you can!

A valentine calendarbook giveaway

If you are wondering when the new Calendarbook 2013 will be release and what are all of those dye cut circles of paper in our studio, it is time to complete our project! The annual Calendarbook by Edizioni Almenodue did come back from Rome in my suitcase and after hours of work assembling the mobiles, now that the NYIGF is over, it is time for the giveaway. Some of you might receive a copy in the mail, a giveaway will be announced on the blog and FB, but mostly I would like to announce a small celebration in our studio on Saturday, February 9th, from 11 to 4. Stop by to say hello, take your copy of the Calendarbook and have a bacio perugina! Last year, this event in our studio was really fun and we might start a new tradition. Come to celebrate a new year, valentine's day and your love for hand-made books with us. We hope to see you soon!

Vittoriani recipe book

This accordion book of twelve Italian recipes is something Silvana and I designed and printed in 2006 for Edizioni Almenodue, after a bride requested it as wedding favors. We printed 100 copies in Italian (the original recipes are from the bride's family) and worked with a translator here in the US for having an English version of the same book. It sold out soon after and never have been reprinted again. Now, I'm thinking to revive this book, love accordion structures and this one even have round corners all the way through, and I might be able to convince Silvana to print it again in Rome and have available for the holidays. I hope my plan will follow, but for now, it was nice to pull it out from the shelf and photograph it with a linen thread closure, instead of the old baker twine it originally was made with. White on white, I think, suites better!

Silvana Amato's studio in Rome

My old time friend and other half of Edizioni Almenodue recently launched her brand, new site! It is really impressive to see many years of design work, well photographed and presented behind the three doors. And for the first time, all our collaborative limited editions and Calendarbooks are organized under one title: Private Press. The photography is by Alessio Macri` and if you follow the fly you will find further information on the people that contributed to the site, as well as the studio's projects. And it was pretty fun to pose for those images, all wearing clothing by the same designer! During the visit in January, I took lots of photos of the studio with Nada` + people working there. The light was great, in Rome always is, and the studio was warm, filled with books and inspiring details. Everything felt incredibly familiar, I was certainly at home! Read Silvana's interview to learn more of her career as a book designer, amply described with technical and personal elements of years of work!

The event

Last Saturday snowed all day during the time of the event and I was so happily surprise when some friends, clients and other designers actually brave the cold and walked in the studio for the giveaway. I hope they found a warm welcome with Italian chocolate, espresso and lots of cheers. The online giveaway is still on until this evening and you can see a bit more of the Calendarbooks in the photos below. If you remember the post of the wood spools dye by hand in the fall, you can guess that the same idea of rolling ribbon, brought me the inspiration to use a strip of paper for our project. Silvana brilliantly designed the Calendarbook as a piece to measure time as well as space, based on 1 meter length of paper. Six months on one side and six on the other, each centimeter listed with date and day of the week. The paper tape is rolled around the spool and secured with metal eyelets and linen thread. To complete the object, I look for some Kraft paper boxes and brought 150 of them in a suitcase to Rome. If custom would ever stop me at the airport, would certainly wonder what do I ever do with these kind of materials back and forth from one country to another. But it is part of the fun of our collaboration. A big thank you to everybody that came on Saturday. Facebook and blog winner will be announced tomorrow, so please continue to let me know what you think of this project!

Measuring tape or calendar?

Metro di carta o calendario?
All photos by Nada` Alaeddin, my 11 old daughter that is quickly learning how to use the camera with an interesting prospective. So lucky to have her help at the studio! Thank you for all the comments so far, the blog giveaway is still on for another week. On facebook too, where all page likes and comments count.

Calendarbook giveaway party

I'm working on the final assembling of the Calendarbooks by Edizioni Almenodue. Schools are closed today, so Nada` is kindly helping me to punch holes and putting eyelets on the strips of paper. As every year, Silvana and I design the self-promotional piece in the fall, it gets offset printed the last week of December in Rome and copies of the Calendarbooks comes back to the US in my suitcase. Sorry if the calendar is always a present closer to valentine's day, rather than the end of the year, but the best wishes for 2012 have the same good intentions. The design, this year, is particularly close to me, growing up with my mother being a seamstress and remembering the measuring tape always on her shoulder. I will slowly reveal the calendar in the next days, but I like to keep it as a surprise for the ones that will have the time to stop by the studio next Saturday from 1 to 5 and pick up their copy. Instead of only sending the calendars via mail and a giveaway online, this year, I thought to have a small get together at the studio, to bare the cold and to meet some of you in person. If you have time and you live in the Boston area, please come by and say hello! Otherwise, leave a comment on the blog, facebook or both, by Monday the 23rd and I will announce a winner the following day. Thank you everyone for your precious support, I wish you could all come to visit! everyone is invited, bring a friend!

Thread, paper and scissors

Binding Castelvetro for an order, during a warm, sunny day!

Calendarbook 2011 and giveaway

Some shots of the Calendarbook 2011 in progress, some in Rome, some on my studio/blue table. This is maybe the real treasure I brought back from the trip, a huge, heavy package, in my suitcase. I'm mailing some of the last copies of the limited edition this week and I would like to start a giveaway with the winner to be announced on January 31st. Just leave a comment on the calendar below.
The self-promotional Calendarbook is an Edizioni Almenodue collaboration, every year with a new artist. For 2011 the illustrations are by British Claudia Boldt of Cloud Cuckoo studio, on a accordion book measuring 8 x 27 inches. It's a progressive calendar, that also lists the sequence of the 365 days. I so discovered that my birthday is on the 207th day of the year. This brilliant idea was by my collaborator Silvana Amato. The font we used is still unpublished, by type designer Alessandro Colizzi. Called Neon, is a pleasure to see it printed, even though we only had capitals and numbers to work with. The accordion book is tie together with waxed linen thread in beautiful teal color to match the illustrations. The image of the London bus, we repeated on the card, is one of my favorite. Let me know what you think!

Making books

A lot of bookbinding in a day for the university library order that is going to be shipped by this week. I was happy I had a change of having some pictures of the process, to share. It is the making of three books in different steps, with a little view of my studio, with a present of Bookhou on the wall. It is sunny today and I need a little break!but first I need to thank Simple Song for the lovely post. It was a big surprise to find during my daily reads.