Having fun

We've been having a bit of fun in the studio in the last couple of weeks, exploring and stretching our designers talents in a different direction.
We all took our cameras and 2 letters from the word BOOK DESIGN, along with a brief  to capture the meaning of the word or our business.

Now usually it's really, really hard to drag these guys away from their computers. Lunch breaks are even spent in front of the their screens. On this Friday, they were off. Birkenhead was not sure what hit. 30 mins or so later they drifted back and put our new color printer to the test printing out their shots.

The following Monday it was time to get sticky. We took our oversized letters and cut out the interiors and used our images to create a montage of the essence of BOOK DESIGN. What amazed me was the silence. Within 5 minutes of hitting the cutting table there was not a sound. Everyone was so engrossed in what they were doing. Lead designers to creativity and they are totally captivated. That's why they would normally never leave their screens!

Here's some images of the activity and hopefully you will see the results on our wall soon.

Kim's still here

With all the changes that have happened I thought I should point out that I am still here! I still live in Christchurch with my family and travel to Auckland on a regular basis to keep in contact with the studio and our clients. Skype just rocks and up until this week I have been able to run the daily workflows in Auckland from my desk in Christchurch. The plan is that Dexter will take over this role now, but I am still very, very much in touch. I'm also not alone here in Christchurch with Cherie to keep me company. My aim is to get out and have much more of a client focus than has been possible in the last few years. My airpoints are looking great and I'm really enjoying the balance between travel and home life. So if you ever have a query or concern (or a really cool project) please don't hesitate to get in touch. I'm always at the end of my phone, whether it's on the email or Facebook. I look forward to seeing or hearing from you soon.

Maths in the Real World

Just incase you are thinking all our designs are based on beautifully illustrated or gorgeously photographed books, then here's a reality check.

We also complete lots of production work for educational publishers. We are happy to work from existing designs or from templates, but of course we also love to design from the beginning.

Major project work is a speciality of ours and it usually arrives with confidentiality clauses, which means we can't show samples of the work. But, we are very keen to take on really LARGE editing, design and production jobs. Our inhouse production systems are built to handle this type of work and are able to give you detailed reports on progress through a single point of contact directly from our studio.

For a number of years now we have enjoyed working with Cengage here in New Zealand and have produced several full-colour, two-colour and one-colour higher educational books. Some are harder than others, but diagrams, graphs and image searching are all part of our everyday work.

This one, On the Building Site is part of the Maths in the Real World series. Most of the Cengage books have accompanying workbooks and teachers' resources and include interactive DVD material that we also produce.

Joy of the Mountains

There are some books that just get under your skin and this is really one of them.

John Harrison was a mountaineer in the 1950s, climbing and naming some of New Zealand's highest peaks and exploring in Antarctica and the Himalayas with Hilary and many other amazing men of that time. This story is of those journeys and his life before he was tragically killed in 1966 trying to save others.

The book has been written by John Wilson, who was in the tent with John Harrison when the avalanche on Mount Rolleston took his life. It uses John Harrison's own photographs and drawings which his widow has been saving for years for just this purpose – to remember a remarkable man.

What is really needed now is for a publisher or distributor to pick up the material and take it further than just the mountaineering clubs. Please contact Kim if you are keen.

Do Your Ears Hang Low?

How do you tell that adorable face, that yes, his ears do hang low? This is the second book that Jenny Cooper has illustrated with the Topp Twins and just like the first one, the song does get stuck in your head.

We were wobbling to and fro' all around the studio as we clear cut all of Jenny's wonderful illustrations to put in the colour backgrounds behind EACH image. Actually I should say each HAIR (as in, Jeez Jen! did you have to make the animals so hairy?)

It was all worth it though, and the launch in Nelson with a Topp Twins concert was just a blast! Another occasion to be really lucky to be doing the job that we do. Thanks so much to the Scholastic team for giving us the opportunity.

Here's the link to our Facebook page if you would like to see some images of the launch.

The Heart of our Game

Maria and Lisa worked really hard to produce two books with Bill Honeybone from HarperCollins for their Christmas list. 

The Heart of our Game, 160 pages full of players and personalities in New Zealand rugby, just in time for Christmas, by Steve Hale. The cover banner was Bill's idea and we really think it was a goodie!

The other was The Kiwi Fisherman's Guide to Life by Ian Chapman and Mike Rendle.

Both in coffee-table format with heaps of great images.

Nic's Cookbook

Nic really has been cooking up a storm. The proceeds of this book are being donated to Muscular Dystrophy. Nic suffers from this condition and he is not letting it get in his way. Since the books release in early October Nic has been travelling around doing lots of cooking demonstrations and having a blast.

The inside pages are colourful and simple with clear instructions that are easy to read. My children have even tried them out and are impressed. This book would make a great Christmas present and I'm sure Lisa was thinking of her nieces and nephews when she designed it.

We have our fingers crossed that this might open some doors, and that we get to design more books just like this.

Published by the wonderful team at Scholastic.

You Know You're from Chch When ... 2

The first book was so successful HarperCollins have once again worked with Bruce Raines to produce more giggles.

It's two-colour throughout and one of the last books Sarah finished before heading back home to America. Do remember to flick through the pages to see the logo fall apart and then slowly rebuild itself. Just like Christchurch.

Templated design vs production rates

Do you have a format for your books that just works?

We know that publishers are always looking for a way to save money. A couple of clients have suggested that creating a design template may just be the way to go.

We are keen.

Our charges are already structured, so we apply a higher rate for pure design work and a lower production rate (it's about 30% lower) for layout, corrections and finished art.

By adapting an existing design we could halve your costs, and if there is more than one book, once the first book is signed off, we foresee that production costs would lessen for the follow-on books as everyone gets into the flow.

Anything that works for you we are more than happy to have a go at.