Five Minutes Interview at London Design Festival: “Print will be collectible,” says Zarina Holmes, Creative Director of Sojournposse who envisioned the concept “digital storytelling …a digital campfire” for a multimedia event she directed in 2009. Trained in advertising, with a masters degree in Design from the alma mater of punk, Middlesex University, Holmes continues the tradition of design as advocacy in the footsteps of alumni Vivienne Westwood and Neville Brody.
Q. What do you think will become of books?
I think books will become rich, experiential journeys for readers. The storytelling will be accompanied by digital and multimedia. The print version is becoming the special collectible part. Although I’m all for print, I can see the benefit of having 500 books on your Kindle during commuting.
Q. What will audience learn from the event?
Hopefully audience will gain insights on how to become a publisher or self-publish. If they are curious about the future of books, they should come. Have fun and get inspired!
Q. What is your favourite book? By author/photographer, design or publisher?
When I was six, it was Dr. Seuss’s Cat In A Hat. Favourite photobook has to be Don McCullin. Although I am a visual person, I kept being given poetry books by friends. All of Us by Raymond Carver and Pablo Neruda’s Twenty Love Poems and A Song of Despair. Read somebody a poem, they will never forget you.
Q. What was the last book you read? Or published!
I was at Taschen shop recently, so the last photobook I saw was Helmut Newton’s Polaroids. I have designed and edited many glossy travel magazines before, but my proudest achievement is a wedding photobook using Blurb platform. My clients loved it. I want to make more cool books like that.
Q. Finally: Kindle, PDF, HTML – or print? Or e-Pub?
Print.
Visit http://zarinaholmes.org/
On 17 September 2011, Sojournposse will be presenting a new event for The London Design Festival 2011, “Whatever is to become of books?” at University College London. Tickets are available on Eventbrite. £1 of each ticket sale from this non-profit event will go towards a photobook app project which supports the Japan Red Cross tsunami drive. Please follow our updates on Twitter at @sojournposseF8, following the hashtags #LDF11 and #storyofbooks. We are also on Facebook and Google+.
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