“The name came from the idea that my books would be made without glue, staples, or string holding the pages in place. That quickly went out the window but the name stuck and instead represents a spirit of saying yes, taking risks and thinking about what audio and community helps books achieve beyond the bounds of their pages." - Lil Green, founder
Our story
No Bindings started out as an experiment asking the question “How do you make a publication that is both digital and analogue at the same time?”
In our case, this translated to audio and print. This multi-media approach is nothing new. In the days of old, epic tales would be carefully scribed by hand into precious manuscripts at the same time as being performed in the street. But there’s a far more recent cultural practice that jump-started No Bindings approach to publishing.
First at university and later whilst living in Recife, Brazil, No Bindings’ founder Lil Green learned about the Brazilian folk tradition of literatura de cordel. Cordel poets are known for both the small poetry books they sell in markets and the performances they give of the poems themselves. Cordel therefore is many things: the performances in town squares (or on busy buses!), the books strung up on cords in the markets (hence cordel), the localised network - printers, artists, customers - and the aesthetics - limited colours, chunky woodcut designs and thin newsprint paper.
With such a rich tradition to take inspiration from, Lil began developing the first iteration of No Bindings, which became Spring.
Initially nicknamed publication-podcasts, (try saying that really fast), artist interviews were recorded as part of the No Bindings’ production process. Getting to know all the artists and writers became the best part about making the publications. Our natural progression to a people-focused approach opened up the production process to creative citizens who weren’t aspiring or professional writers or artists. Everyone has a story.
“It has become very clear that No Bindings isn’t just our bespoke printed and audio works, it’s the community that is built, right from research through to production, with each publication.” - Lil Green.
Our Principles
Print, audio and exchange are at the heart of what we do at No Bindings, informing how we work and what we make. Sometimes we start with one, sometimes another, but we always fuse all three to create beautiful literary worlds that extend stories beyond the page.
The beautiful publication you hold in your hand.
Print is the most traditional aspect of what we do at No Bindings. We create high quality, luxe products - books, zines, postcards and other literary ephemera - that tell unique stories by underrepresented voices.
Browse our publications, or get in touch if you have a bookish idea you’d like No Bindings to create.
Audio
The expanded universe of each story.
All our publications are accompanied by an audio work. These include (but are not limited to) podcasts, dramatised narrations, interviews with creators, and discussions of the publication’s themes.
These audio works expand the universe of each publication, taking you beyond the page. Have a listen.
Exchange
The way we grow and stay connected.
Exchange is really important to us at No Bindings. It’s how we got started and how we hope to continue. Our productions and workshops bring people together to share stories, while our consultancy service shares what we’ve learnt from our practice along the way.
Our director Lily also offers mentoring to creative professionals wishing to develop their skills and community-based projects.
Networks and learning
Our people
We are a small core team of two but we work regularly with some very talented people.
Our research
From design, through to inclusion and platforms, we’re always testing new ways of making our publications and sharing them with the world.