The logbooks
Logbooks have been a part of the Landmark organisation since 1965 and since then, guests have been recording their experiences and recommendations in the forms of everything from drawings and watercolours to letters and poetry, within their pages. At The Old Parsonage in Iffley, Oxfordshire, the property is almost onto its seventh volume. The above video explains the process behind designing and creating the brand new bookplates, which will sit proudly inside each new logbook.
Landmark guests frequently sketch beautiful images and create wonderful watercolours, as above.
A new era
The original logbooks eventually became too small and so Landmark moved onto bigger, green-bound volumes. Each volume contains heavy cartridge watercolour paper, strong enough to write and draw on and to thumb through the many entries. Guests often reach for the logbook first when entering the property, either to read past entries or to look back and find their own from previous stays.
Landmark approached artist, illustrator and printmaker Ed Kluz to produce a bespoke design for the new bookplate, to sit in each new logbook, placed in Landmarks across the country. Ed chose a design which incorporated his favourite aspects of Landmark buildings along with the classic 'Landmark' looks, then placing them together into a cohesive design to form the bookplate in pen and ink. Ed hopes that the new bookplate will be a puzzle for Landmarkers, to test themselves on which elements come from which buildings.
The process
This design was then transferred into the printing plate and printed. Using traditional printing methods requires a complex series of judgements involving the atmosphere, the ink, as well as a consideration of the pace of the process itself. Reading the process of the printer is a fantastic traditional skill. To print our new bookplates, a 1965 Heidelberg Platen letter press machine was used. After a few test prints were run, the finished product was carefully scrutinised for errors, before the entire batch was run. The new bookplate, in the above video, will be sent out to our latest property, Dunshay Manor in Dorset.
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