Design Bindings of the Booker Prize 2020 – Lori Sauer – Bookish Talk #11

We return to the design bindings made for the shortlisted books of the Booker Prize in 2020. This time we talk to Lori Sauer about her work with the book Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste (Canongate Books, 2020).

The structure is a version of the crossed structure binding modified by Lori Sauer. Binding covered with stone veneer. In the video, we discuss some technical aspects of this binding, as well as Lori’s approach to working with Booker Prize bindings and book structures in general.

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Video

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00:00 – Beginning
00:34 – Lori Sauer’s method in working with Booker Prize bindings
02:43 – Introducing Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste (Canongate Books, 2020)
05:02 – What was Lori’s process in selecting the theme for the binding
06:46 – Modified version of the crossed structure binding
07:52 – Using stone veneer
10:39 – The darkness in the book and stone of the cover
11:20 – Explaining the crossed structure binding
11:47 – Eel skin for the spine
12:37 – Is it hard to work with eel skin?
13:09 – Gold speckles on the cover
14:29 – Iterative design process
16:30 – Why book structures are so important to Lori (even if they are hidden)
18:03 – The most challenging Booker Prize binding Lori had to work on
19:41 – Peculiarities of Lori’s style
21:39 – Who influenced Lori’s style?
22:55 – Lori’s background in art and architecture
25:18 – What is design binding?
27:09 – Not using assistants, Covid, and being not a well-disciplined creator
27:53 – Lori’s studio
29:01 – Feedback from Maaza Mengiste (and other authors)

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