Just added to the site! A new way to express yourself through your portfolio. Now you can choose from horizontal, vertical, diagonal and round pockets. The small pockets are perfect for storing your business cards and the larger ones for unbound materials such as resumes and other leave behind literature. These pockets can be added to the inner liners of portfolios and clamshell boxes and can be covered in any of 27 color options.
These coated metallic fabrics give a stunning finish to custom portfolios and boxes and they are now available as covering choices in the online store. There are 7 colors to choose from, light gold, pearl, lava, aqua, steel, pewter and silver. Shown here is a light gold clamshell box, a pearl notched clamshell box and a lava exposed screw post portfolio. They are photographed on the aqua.
Exposed Screw Post Wooden Portfolios are now available in the online store. I will be adding Hidden Screw Post version soon as well as a larger variety of woods and finishes.
I’ve been getting many requests for wooden portfolios recently and because of the high level of interest I will be adding some standard sizes to the online store very soon, hopefully by mid April. The portfolios will be available in the same 7 sizes that the bookcloth versions are and to start will be offered in 3 different woods, most likely walnut, ash and teak and 3 finishes. The ordering process will be simple and foil stamping, colored cloth liners and pockets can be added to any wooden portfolio. The standard hinged pages as well as polypropylene pages will fit these as well. Stayed tuned and check back soon.
If you’re searching for jobs or applying to grad school programs and you want your application to stand out from the rest, what better way to catch their eye than presenting them with a striking personalized portfolio loaded with your credentials. When they open the package and see your name emblazoned on the cover of a professionally made portfolio they will know that you are serious and are sure to remember your name. There will be a lot of information inside the portfolio that needs to be the real star of the presentation so keeping the portfolio design clean and simple is the best choice in this case. Choose colors that say something about yourself, your work, or even the institution that you are applying to. There are 11 fonts available in a variety of sizes and styles that can be used for personalizing your portfolio. For a subtle approach, a blind emboss of your name in the bottom right corner of the cover would be a great choice. If you want to add some color and make your name stand out a bit more, then choose one of the 10 colors available and opt for a dead center or optical center placement. All of these options are available in the online store at www.kdbooks.com.
I am excited to announce the launch of a new online store at kdbooks.com. It offers a large selection of semi custom screw post portfolios, ring binders and presentation boxes. Each design is available in a number of standard sizes and can be customized by making selections from various drop down menus. At this time there are 20 bookcloth colors to choose from however many more will be added in the near future. A portfolio can be covered entirely in one color or a second color can be chosen for the inner liners. Each structure can also be customized by adding any number of pockets or personalized with embossing and foil stamping. Take a look at the new site, your feedback will be appreciated.
This is the largest box I’ve made to date and I’m really excited about the possibilities it has opened up. I had always seen the 38″ x 26″ dimensions of the bookboard as the limit. After watching a home improvement show about how laminated plywood beams are made I decided that more than likely those limits didn’t exist. For each of the 11 pieces that make up the structure of the box, I cut 4 strips of .059 bookboard and laminated them, overlapping the seams of each. The box measure 42″ long, so I used one piece of 38″ and one piece of 4 1/2″ and reversed the placement on each layer. After the glue had dried I trimmed the ends down to the proper length. This produced a super strong and stable piece of bookboard that I knew could support the weight of the finished box. Since the box is so large it was important to build it with 1/4″ walls, standard 1/8″ walls would have made for a very flimsy and unwieldy structure. Trimming the pieces was a bit tricky. As with the pieces of any box it is so important that they are cut at perfect 90 degree angles through their width. 1/4″ thick pieces do not fit into the board cutter so they are all hand cut. It takes a real steady hand and perfect attention to keep the blade straight when cutting through that thickness. Once all the pieces were finally trimmed and glued, I covered the box in a lime green linen cloth and lined the trays with a deep wine colored Dupioni silk. I really like this color combination and am very happy with the finished product. I’m looking forward to applying this new technique to the creation of some unique and impressive custom portfolio and presentation pieces.
I am very excited about my recent move to a much larger studio. It feels good to spread out and have more space around my equipment. I’m still trying to get everything in order and figure out the best way to use the space. More than likely I’ll move things around before I’m satisfied but here are some photos as things are for the moment. I’m looking forward to taking on some new, exciting and larger projects as the year winds down.
