Designing with purpose

The conceptual brand design journey

‘Where is the Bird?’ book launch

The Watershed
A

Remaining fascinated by the world calms me

Mindstyling podcast
Baby BSL Where is the Bird? The first Augmented Reality book to inspire the use of British Sign Language in Deaf and Hearing Families.

South West startups using tech to build a more inclusive future

TechSpark
VIKA Books presents Leonie Hampton's In the Shadow at The Performing Photobook at Format Festival 2023.

Design how to share your story, not just how to tell it

The Bookseller
Baby BSL Where is the Bird? The first Augmented Reality book to inspire the use of British Sign Language in Deaf and Hearing Families.

Baby BSL and British Sign Language

A Brief Guide from the Deaf Studies Trust
Free Mines Coal Faces, Nick Hodgson. VIKA

Duotone printing

The soul of black and white photography
Environmental Considerations. Design VIKA are one of few designers to reverse engineer book design from the production line. Page size, pagination and realistic print runs optimise and reduce wastage (see opposite). The choice of inks used was also minimised. Photographs were printed as duotones, and colour was used sparingly to enhance the texture of the recycled papers. Printer Printed using vegetable inks at Taylor Brothers, a carbon balanced printers certified by both the FSC and the World Land Trust. Chosen for close proximity to VIKA negating international shipping, couriers, and press-passing. Paper Printed on Fedrigoni’s Recycled Materica Viva: FSC certified, ECF free, Acid free, Heavy metal absent, selected secondary fibres. Paper is further carbon balanced through The World Land Trust, an international conservation charity endorsed by Sir David Attenborough. Papers used are: Woodstock: a pulp coloured, recycled, uncoated paper with 80% recycled fibres and 20% ECF virgin fibres, FSC certified, smooth finishing. Symbol Freelife Matt: an environment-friendly ECF paper, FSC certified. High content of recycled material with a 40% minimum recycled guarantee. Triple blade coated on both sides with matt finish. This material was challenging to use with the ink denisities for such dark images. We found that the recycled fibres are shorter and flakier than pristine fibres, meaning that small white dots appeared in some books. To negate this, dots were hand spotted by the printer and the artist. Such imperfections are the cost of sustainable materials. We must stop holding recycled stocks to the same bar of quality as pristene materials. We must learn wabi sabi and embrace what these imperfections represent. Cloth Bound using Winter & Company’s Toile Ocean, the first book cover material made from recycled polyester yarn derived 100% from ocean bound plastic and coated with water-based acrylic. For every metre sold, 1% of turnover goes to clean water projects. This material was challenging to use as it does not adhere easily to recycled board. We are using the cloth’s reverse side as we wanted the bright red colour and so were not using it as designed. We needed to test several glues to get the fabric to adhere well. Foils The cover is blocked using Foilco vegan, recyclable biodegradeable, compostable foils supported by the Zero Foil 2 Landfill scheme.

Sustainable publishing

A new Gold Standard
In the Shadow, Leonie Hampton. VIKA

The Never-Ending Photostory

The Bookseller
Where is the Bird? at Waterstones Bristol

CreaTech Spotlight

Creative Industries Council
Victoria Forrest, director of VIKA. Photograph by Guy Bellingham

About Victoria

Director of VIKA

Silent Stories

One Tech World Conference
F1 Retro 1970, Mark Hughes.

Mark Hughes: F1 Retro

Book design testimonial
A children writes at the Kibera Pride Children’s Home, in the city of Nairobi, Kenya, on October 27, 2023.

Kibera Pride Initiative

A lifeline for Nairobi's vulnerable children

Press-passing with VIKA

Printing beautiful books
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A free VIKA Book of Books

We have FREE exquisitely manufactured, hand-stitched and lithographically printed, Book of Books for potential future clients to experience the production quality of VIKA books.