C. Matthey DIY Bookbinding Boxes

Designer: Franziska Böttcher
Photographer: Patricia Langwara
Location: Germany
Project Type: Produced
Client: C. Matthey
Product Launch Location: Germany
Packaging Contents: DIY Books
Packaging Substrate / Materials: Paper
Printing Process: Digital printing

C. Matthey is a family-owned German bookbinder manufacture with a strong passion for their craft. By launching three DIY bookbinding boxes, Christoph (the father) and Conrad (the son) hope to share this passion by allowing people to experience the art of bookbinding themselves.

The boxes come in three variations. The poems and ballads box is filled with six works form Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Theodor Fontane, Joachim Ringelnatz and Friedrich Schiller. The fairytale and notes box comes with three Gebrüder Grimm fairytales and three blank notebooks for your own thoughts and stories. The third box contains only notebooks (line, checkered and plain) for you to fill with whatever pleases you. In the boxes is find everything you need to make your own little books: the covers, made of traditional Italian marble-paper; the inside pages for six books; all the tools and instructions and some extra knowledge to impress your peers.

The design of the boxes was inspired by two things, the first being the love for detail which goes into every single product – represented by elegant typography, detailed information, delicate illustrations and special elements, like the colored logo embossing on the box or the color-coded fabric stick tape on the corner of the boxes. The second inspiration is the colorful Italian marble-paper, which is not only featured on the books which will be bound, but also of the banderole wrapped around the high quality carton box. All in all the design aims to be elegant, pleasurable and inviting.