Most books that are sent around in altered book round robins have some sort of artist sign in page. The point of this page is to have a record of the names of the artists who worked in the book—a point that many artists forget when creating them. For me, the best sign in pages are the simplest ones, for two reasons. First, I want to be able to read the list of artist names quickly and easily, without too much hunting or fumbling with pieces. Second, I want the artists who work in my books to focus their creativity on the pages they create, and not on their sign in. Too often, I receive books that require a extra work to create a sign in piece, such as decorating a tag or creating a paper doll. I always wonder if the person who created this sign in page wouldn’t have preferred an additional set of pages from each artist instead.
If you’re looking for cute ideas for sign in pages, you won’t find them here. Mine are plain and simple:
These three sign in pages all use simple folded cards. The first is from a Four Seasons RR, and each artist simply opened the card that matched her season, and signed her name. The second is from an Asisan Inspirations RR, and the mah johng cards flip up to reveal a space for each artist’s name. The third is from my very first round robin, and the blank cards for artist signatures are scattered amongst the missing child posters. Three different variations on the same simple theme, each coordinated to the topic of the book.
My favorite sign in is just a simple list. Here are four variations of that theme: one on a set of piano keys, one incorporated as part of the book’s introduction, one on ledger sheets, and one using no words—the crossed pens were enough of an indicator for the artists in this “no-English” round robin.
Equally simple: providing shapes that can be signed. In the first book, each artist signed on a star. In the second, each artist chose a colored square.
