The (London) portfolio hunters field guide

This week I've been in the market for a new portfolio book and visited four London bindery's before ordering.

A photographers portfolio needs to be...

• Changeable. If you can't update or revise your portfolio at whim you're going to go bankrupt buying new ones. Many commercial and editorial photographers change their book's content before each viewing to target the material to the viewer.
• Presentable. This means constructed to craftsman standard and with high quality materials. Off-the-shelf ring binders (even nice padded leatherette ones) will not do.
• Hard wearing. These things get biked about, left on floors, etc. They need to be protected when outdoors and sturdy enough to withstand rough handling.
• A unique, beautiful thing. Not an absolute requirement but we're visual people and so are our creative clients. Something stylish and in keeping with your photographic subject specialities and other marketing material is only going to help create the right impression. Of course it's the images that count most but the design of your book also reflects upon your attitude towards the business.

In London we have a few choices when shopping for this particular blend of craftsmanship. I recommend that you go to visit places and meet the people who'll be making or managing the manufacture of your book. You will be dealing with them again as you need more: Many photographers end up with 3-6 books as they're concurrently biked to different agencies and publishers. You will also want to see and handle the range of materials, some finished samples, the bike bags, etc. Viewing photo's on the Web really doesn't do these things justice.

Here's a summary of the 4 bindery's I visited...

• Plastic Sandwich on the Finchley Road. They make unique semi-pliable covered books in either black or brown. The material is a very thick leather. The books are constructed from a single piece. This one-piece semi-pliable book that makes for a unique product. They have a fast turnaround and competitive pricing.
• The Wyvern Bindery on Clerkenwell Road. A very good range of materials conveniently swatched. They seem to stick to traditional styles of construction. Expect a typical 2-3 weeks delivery time. Quotes are hand written. Pricing is average.
• Delta Design Studio in EC1. Cathy Robert owns and runs this workshop. They have a good range of materials. Quotations are hand written. Lead time is the average 2-3 weeks. Pricing is the highest by a significant margin, but then she has clients like Giorgio Armani as well as a host of top UK photographers, so it's a fair bet that you do get what you pay for here. Visits are by appointment only.
• The House of Portfolios in EC1. This is the British agent for a New York bindery. They have by far the widest choice of leathers. Due the current 1:2 exchange rate between GBP and USD their pricing is extremely competitive. Lead time is the longest, typically 4 weeks. Quotes are computer genertated. Visits are by appointment only.

Wyvern, Delta & House are all within walking distance of each other. Jump out at Farringdon Station and you're just a few minutes walk from each of them. If you were visiting London for the day to check these places out then you could easily tube it over to Plastic Sandwich too (Finchley Road stn).

The design options on offer from these binderies are good. There are various designs to consider. As well as a 'book' you can have folding cases, slip cases, double pocket binders, and more. I wanted a standard book so I only examined these in any detail.

First of all you need to consider the size of prints you want to book to hold. Many photographers use actual prints (sometimes trimmed) as their pages. I wanted to use A4 prints bled to the edges so I decided on custom made 14"x14" pages. With this size I can mount A4 horizontally or vertically. When mounting the pages are acetate covered on both sides and the prints are held in place with static or a light Spraymount. The pages can be black or white. Unfortunately the whites are bordering on cream. The book spines hide three brass posts which the multi hole punched pages slide on to. Brass screws then hold the pages in place. When in place the posts and screws are not visible but naturally they can be uncovered easily to allow the pages to be changed.

The next thing to consider is the number of prints you want to show. 25-40 would be typical. This decision needs to be made before the book is made as the thickness of the spine and height of the posts depends on it. Acetate pages are double sided. Printed pages can be single or double sided but keeping the flow and juxtaposition of the photographs with double-sided printed pages is quite a task when it comes to making updates.

Cover material: I started with colour. All of my marketing is simple black on white. Black is the de-facto colour for books. It's so common that they are sometimes muddled and misplaced by clients. White is too impractical for me. So a mid-toned grey was my choice. If my marketing included a key colour then I would have probably gone with that. Once colour's decided there's the actual material to consider. The usual ones are linen, canvas, vinyl (aka waxskin) & leather. Each of these has a number of variations. Each of the variations has its own range of colours. At Plastic Sandwich you get to choose one type of (very thick) leather in either black or brown - Remember their USP is the one-piece wraparound design. The other three bindery's have choices, and plenty of them.

Although the linen samples I saw looked great I felt they would scuff on the corners over time. Canvas would suit thick fine art matte papers and fine art subject matter. Vinyl is not the cheap and nasty stuff you get on office binders. This stuff looks and feels very good. It also seems to be hard-wearing but a high pressure thumbnail test reveal that it can be marked permanently. Leather is the most expensive option but it passed the thumbnail test once given a few minutes to recover. At The House of Portfolios in particular the range of finishes and colours is superb. So to avoid indecision do decide on your colour first as this will narrow down the finishes available (unless it's black).

Once you've picked the page size, number of pages, colour and material there are the finishing touches to consider. The insides of the covers typically have a pocket for your promo cards. They are also often lined. The Wyvern Bindery had the widest range of interior linings. Plastic Sandwich's one-off design means no lining but they have other options such as interior linen covered front and back boards and a back cover stiffener. Another important finish option is a deboss of your name. It's an additional cost option but who wouldn't want this done? You can either go with a range of 'house' fonts or at extra cost get a bespoke debossing stamp made so that you can have you logo/font perfectly replicated. Each bindery has their own requirements for the artwork you'll need to provide for a custom debossing stamp. A deboss can also be foiled with a colour including a range of metallics, sometimes at no extra cost. The third 'must have' option is a bike bag. Like the books they can be custom made with colour and material choices and debossing. I've ordered mine in a metallic slate grey cordura to match to metallic Piombo leather that my book's covered with.

These things naturally aren't cheap. Expect to pay around £150 for a smaller size in linen with no frills. The one I have just ordered - leather, 14"x14" page size, custom debossed - is just over £300. In time you may well end up with 3 or 4 of them so this is definitely something to add to the insurance policy.

There is one other London option I'm aware of. It wasn't for me so I didn't visit. But it would certainly make your portfolio stand out from the crowd and is as hard wearing as it gets. Check out the Aluminium Case Company.