Bookbinding as a Method for Creative Educational and Social Work

Lea Giesecke is a graphic designer specialising in print and head of the bookbinding workshop at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam. In her bookbinding as social practice course, she shows how bookbinding can also be used in working with people.

How did you personally get into bookbinding?

I studied Communication Design. In Kiel at the Muthesius Academy of Fine Arts and Design, book design was an integral part of the programme, with its own typography and book design class. That was what I enjoyed the most: Designing books - and not only that, but also understanding how bookbinding techniques can be utilised and further developed. In other words, really understanding the book as an object.

I then went on to study book design in my Master's degree. At that time, Franziska Morlock was still at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam. She wrote the well-known work Vom Blatt zum Blättern, which has been translated into many languages. That was an important reason for me to study here.

The university is also very well equipped, with machines and its own bookbinding workshop - that's not a given. Many universities have tended to neglect this in the course of digitalisation. I was able to specialise further here. In my master's thesis, I developed the BuchBauKasten (BookBuildingKit) and worked intensively on bookbinding techniques.

The BuchBauKasten was published by Prima Publikationen and I also use it at trade fairs, give talks and workshops. It now also hangs in the workshops at other universities. It's nice to see how the work is not just aesthetic, but is actually used and helps students. This has also led to my professorial recruitment: I initially deputised for and then took over the management of the workshop. Somehow it all came together, which makes me very happy.

What fascinates you about this craft?

What fascinates me about bookbinding is that you need surprisingly little to get started. You can theoretically do it at home - without big machines or a lot of material. At the same time, it's about putting content into a form. In the past, books were primarily a medium for documenting content, but today you can store a lot of things digitally. But the book has the advantage that information is available as a haptic object. Content and form interact - and can reinforce each other. I find this combination of simplicity and the possibility of bringing information into an object particularly exciting.

Can you remember your first self-bound book?

I don't know if I bound books as a child - if I did, I can't remember it. But I do remember my first books as a craftsman: it was during an internship in a bookbindery before I started university. There I was allowed to help repair books from libraries, for example. And to practise the techniques, I also bound notebooks that I could keep.

What exactly is the "Bookbinding as a social practice" course about?

I keep getting requests from social organisations that are interested in workshops. At the same time, they often don't have the budget. That's why I came up with the idea of training people who already work with children or in social areas so that they can offer such workshops themselves. Because the techniques are quite simple, it's easy to implement.

Of course, you can't become a professional bookbinder in three days. But you can quickly achieve very nice results with paper, needle and thread. This is particularly satisfying in Social Work - when participants not only gain experience in workshops, but can also take away something tactile afterwards. The book is a medium with which children can document their experiences. It's different to just writing on a piece of paper - you end up with a small publication that you can take home and perhaps put on a shelf.

Who is the course particularly suitable for?

The course is suitable for anyone who enjoys working with people. This could be daycare centres, schools or other social institutions - with older people, with people with disabilities or with mental health problems. In other words, for anyone who works with people and is interested in this type of workshop format. Occupational therapists, for example.

What do the participants learn in practical terms?

The first day is mainly about the basics: bookbinding techniques, paper, paper production and direction - in other words, the theoretical foundation. The following two days are dedicated to practical work. We bind notebooks and learn various simple techniques. We also work creatively, for example with collages, and transfer content into small book forms - called "zines". At the end of the course, participants will take away both notebooks and their own small, designed zine in which they can record what they have learnt, for example.

How does the course differ from traditional bookbinding courses?

The course is explicitly designed for people to work with in a social context. This sets it apart from many courses, for example at adult education centres. On the one hand, I impart in-depth knowledge - I also teach bookbinding to graphic designers at the university.

At the same time, the course is designed to apply the knowledge directly. The BuchBauKasten gives participants a broad overview of the possibilities of bookbinding and I prepare the content in such a way that it can be implemented directly with children or other groups. I have already given seminars in Social Work myself and know what is important. There are also concrete examples and projects - in other words, ideas on how to use the techniques in workshops.

Further training

If you would like to use the methods in your own work, the Bookbinding as Social Practice further training course at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam gives you the opportunity to learn and deepen these methods in practice. The next course will take place from the 19th to the 21st October 2026.