Making the diaries for Steven Bartlett’s Podcast ‘The Diary of a CEO’

Making the diaries for Steven Bartlett’s Podcast ‘The Diary of a CEO’

Sharing is caring!

Masters Bookbinding has been incredibly fortunate to work with some very prestigious clients over the years and our latest project is no exception. Masters has recently been tasked with producing the Diaries for the podcast of Steven Bartlett‘The Diary of a CEO’.  Steven has just been nominated as the next Dragon on Dragons’ Den and is considered to be one of Europe’s most accomplished young entrepreneurs and philosophical thinkers. We were really honoured to be asked to work with Steven’s team to produce a very personal piece for each of his guests on his podcast ‘The Diary of a CEO’.

The diary comes presented in a handmade outer box with lid, with ‘The Diary of a CEO’ silver foiled on the front.  The boxes are made with 3mm greyboard which is precision V-Cut on our digital Zund, this allows us to create perfect 90 degree angles to the edges of the boxes. The boards are then glued, covered, and lined with Ebony Colorplan, from G.F. Smith Paper, at the same time a black ribbon is fixed into the base to facilitate the easy removal of the diary from the box and finally the lid of the box is silver foiled.

The Diaries themselves are made bespoke and personalised for each one of Steven’s guests. The first pages show an image of Steven with his guest and a quote from each of them that was meaningful to Steven. The paper selected is specifically suited for writing on, it has a lovely natural texture to it, and prints beautifully on our Digital Indigo Press.

Once the pages are printed, they are then folded and section sewn, ready to be backlined (which is where the sections are glued together along the spine, to secure them), and finally trimmed on our guillotine. The book block is then ready for the edges to be hand-gilded with gold foil.

We then make the covers, again in 3mm greyboard, with a real leather covering that is pared using a paring knife. This is where the leather is thinned at the edges, which enables the leather to be folded and glued over the edge of the board. Paring knives need to be super sharp and as such require expert hands. The boards are also padded which adds that extra luxurious feel to the book. Once the covers, and the inner lining are glued on, the end papers and book block is fixed to the cover, headbands and a ribbon are added, then it’s the silver foiling of the covers, and the diary is complete. Just an overnight stay under weight and a final polish and they are ready to be sent to Steven’s team.

As you can see, there is a lot of work behind the scenes that goes into the making of these beautiful diaries, each one given the care and attention it deserves for the audience it will ultimately be presented to.

We would like to thank Steven Bartlett and his team for entrusting us with this exceptional project, and thank you for the special mention on Steven’s LinkedIn Profile.

No Comments

Post A Comment