Blick ins Buch
Cardboard Box meets imagination- a book about an almost normal cardboard box and about what can become of it when it meets cutter and glue, creativity and enthusiasm.
Imagine yourself handing over a present. You have thought about it for a long time, searched and found. You have carefully chosen and lovingly wrapped. Just to be safe, you have packed all of it into a cardboard box. You never know… You hand it over and hope for excitement.
You see the joy in the eyes of the receiver and are pleased. You are content until you discover: It is the packaging sparking joy, not the present. The regular cardboard box. Well, not entirely regular. For among those boxes waiting to be disposed of, you have indeed chosen the most appealing one. The one from the Asian shop where you like to buy. And sometimes you enjoy looking at the writing on the boxes in which you like to carry your shopping home while dreaming. Of the holiday in Thailand. Something like that. But then you have quickly tidied everything up and then there was this sturdy box and now…
… the story takes its course.
The box meets your or your present’s receiver’s imagination, cutter, glue and stamina. You made someone happy, which is what you intended to do. Yet, their focus lies on the box, not the present.
Without knowing, you have provided the presentee with one of the most miscellaneous materials for living out creative energy there is: cardboard. What is usually binned in millions now becomes the material of which dreams are made. Completely rapt, your lucky one cuts and glues. Forgetting space and time- and, sadly, also your present. A world of its own emerges, not to be discarded, but made from cardboard.
More boxes are needed. The shopkeeper is happy. It is a good thing not having to dispose of packaging. For the shop. And for the environment. And for the creative process, which you have ignited. You stand in awe. You wonder. You marvel at a cardboard production gaining ground.
Indeed, there was this one cardboard box. It changed owners in Munich. And yes, it was the initial impulse for this book and for what you may discover inside it. And now it is up to you whether you simply look, marvel and simply hold your breath or whether you go out yourself, get boxes, begin. To »write« a cardboard story of your own. Whichever way you decide: Have fun! And do not forget: In case you want to give away this book- which we think is a really good idea- always put a cardboard box around it…
On concept and origin of this book
Where tidy people live, things are being categorized. In the field of books, we have subject groupings for that. There are children’s and non-fiction books, manuals and novels. And much more. Wherever creatives are at home, order is being questioned. It is where thrill and pounding hearts reign together with the joy of creating and trying out. Maybe, Heike von Schlebrügge thought she was presenting us with a children’s book when she gave us a glimpse into her work. Indeed, she had built all these amazing things from cardboard. We saw the creative potential. Our pounding hearts were the result of the realization that only so little material is needed for crafting as soon as ideas com bubbling up. We fell in love with all the little details on the cardboard items- as well as with the stories they tell.»We do not publish children’s books«- rejecting could have been so easy.
»We would like to make your book«- whoever becomes a publisher out of the love for books, cannot get confused when not every decision follows the strict rules of reason.
We wanted to talk details in person, then came Corona. Children were stuck in apartments and we wished we could publish the book immediately. How cool would it be if now, when so many things are being ordered online and delivered in boxes, one would have this book? As impulse. Instead, we searched for material. A book which is about upcycling next to imagination, needs a working cradle to cradle production. It has to be compostable. We polished details. Discussed. And we still had not met Heike von Schlebrügge in person.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of cardboard boxes are being disposed of. We would be happy if, from now on, more and more of those boxes would manage to get to experience a kind of second life. Because one little abstractly drawn boy’s excitement is spreading- and the realization that true adventures happen inside one’s head- and sometimes in a cutter – carries out…
Features and design
This book is printed on Nautilus Superwhite – 100% recycled paper made in Austria – and printed climate-neutrally. Moreover, this paper meets the FSC standard. The endpaper is exactly the material which holds together the top and bottom layers of the corrugated cardboard of your boxes. The material used for the cover, Surbalin, prevents the ink from sinking into the surface, and was thus the ideal alternative to cardboard.
Not only is the paper environmentally friendly, but the entire process of production is.
We produce with an EMAS and “Blauer Engel” (a German sustainability certificate) certified printing company. Therefore, we can guarantee that besides the paper itself, all other materials correspond to high environmental standards: cradle-to-cradle ecological colors free from mineral oils and cobalt, alcohol-free printing, processless printing platewithout chemicals and water use ,100% green power, other emissions are compensated for climate-neutrally with gold-standard
Heike von Schlebrügge
Boxboard: Handle with Care
88 pages + 8 pages endpaper made from ribbed brown paper
with colored images
size 17 x 23.5 cm
thread-stitched hardcover with embossing
