Portfolio Books

for Arterra Landscape Architects

Creating a custom book structure

These large-format lay-flat portfolio books showcase Arterra Landscape Architects' beautiful design work, and are quite the talking piece during interviews with potential clients.

Arterra wanted to create a series of portfolios that would showcase their design process, as well as final photographs of their projects. They wanted each page to be 11" by 17" wide and to lay flat for presentation, without using any spiral binding or posts. This ruled out many methods of bookbinding, as most leave a gutter between the pages. Usually a book is bound at the center of the sheets, and in order to do this, the pages would have to be printed at around 35" wide. Offset printing can manage this size, but with only two copies needed of each book, it would be extremely cost prohibitive.

Bemboom Design developed a custom structure that would allow smaller prints to layflat, and after much searching, found a master bookbinder, Pettingell Book Bindery, in Berkeley, California, who could make the books.

Bemboom Design created layouts that tell the story of each project, and mix conceptual work, process photos and final photography in a natural way. We designed custom endsheets and a screenprinted cover that pull elements from Arterra's overall brand system.