Digital Studio Management

As Christchurch was rattling and rolling in February, we were implementing a new digital production system. The perfect thing to try and do when stress levels are high and the patience low.
But luckily we have survived both situations and love our new Streamtime digital studio management system. (The quakes can just bugger off, we'll never like them).
For our clients and suppliers you'll notice a huge difference in our turn around times for quotes. The system is now automated and all our forms are produced and emailed in one easy action and then transferred to the job/task sheet. It's just fantastic.
The next bit is opening up the backend so clients are able to log on at anytime and see how their budgets are progressing in real time. Hopefully this feature will go live in the next week.
The big advantage is we are now able to standardise all the different parts of production. Kim doesn't have to continually explain how and why she costed a project a certain way to Trisha who used to just stand there and shake her head. It's much less stressful this way and hopefully, more 'streamlined' for everyone.
We really look forward to hearing your feedback on how your find the system. Good or bad.

Budgets/Pricing

We are hearing more and more that publishers are looking for a cheaper, cost effective service that compliments their inhouse team.
Our team here at Book Design is structured so we can offer top-end design and production, as well as efficient basic layout. With two senior designers, a junior designer and a mac op we can offer a pricing structure that suits your project. We have a sliding price scale dependent on the amount of design that is required.
Just ask, or even better, tell us your budget and we can come up with a team solution.

What has winning a Book Design Award meant ?

Last year we were lucky enough to have our design for Year 9 Graphics chosen as the Best Book Design for an Educational Book at the PANZ Book Design Awards and the design for Wonky Donkey gained a High Commended Certificate in the Picture Book category.

Apart from being totally gobsmacked (I really thought Geography on the Edge was taking away the big Educational Book prize), we were totally unprepared for the impact this award would have on our business. We’d received a Highly Commended in 2009 and this had certainly raised our profile, but it was nothing compared with 2010.

I’ve heard publishers say that winning awards doesn’t necessarily increase sales. Being shortlisted might, but not the big event. We found that our business became more reputable over night. It gave us credit, which helped open doors, that we had trouble previously opening.

All these have positively affected our bottom line and have given us the opportunity to grow. With more staff, better servers and more opportunities, almost 12 months later we are prepared to take an even bigger step and open another branch in Auckland.

The best bit though, is being held aloft by your peers. The fantastic comments from designers and illustrators whom we have admired for years, just makes all the hard work seem worthwhile. Design is like most service industries, you are only as good as your last book. But gee, the next great book is what makes us get out of bed each morning. Bring it on!

Thanks so much for PANZ and all the sponsors who make these awards possible for our industry. Here at Book Design, we really appreciate the opportunities you are giving us. 

Easter: Which one will you choose?

Each year we like to celebrate Easter with our clients. This year it seemed more important than ever. So we created a special Easter game. The story goes like this:

After the February quake, people here in Christchurch were suffering from ‘quake brain’ and then, for many, depression set in. 

We all needed to find a way to get our feelings out and then move forward.

Being designers, and all young at heart, we came up with our own version of this wonderful classic children’s game.

The Book Design way involved each of us writing down our thoughts on how the Earthquake made us feel. All the negative ones ...

• What will happen next?
• Constant tiredness
• Sadness at all the loss
• Feeling cheated

Then on top of these we wrote how we are going to move on ...

• Sharing with others
• Focusing on work
• Thankful for family and friends being safe
• Wanting to succeed
• Having unbroken bottles of wine

What we found was that we all shared the same fears and we all had many different ways to move forward. 

Our team was united and able to offer each other support in moving on.

Now we want to give back to you in thanks for all the fantastic support. If you didn't receive the game, but would like one. Just drop us a line.

What happens when a designer is let loose

For ages now we've been wanting to do a book that really goes out there. With NZ publishing budgets though that can be a really hard ask. Then along came Katie Haworth from Penguin.
'this is a project I’d really like you to go to town on. Go nuts, go mad, have fun, dance on a figurative design table and kick the plates off.'

So Anita did and we've just got to see the printed copy and are thrilled with the results of the Great Rescue Race by Raymond McGrath.

Click on any of the images if you'd like to see them larger

Raymond's illustrations are so zany and full of action that it took us a proofing round to really let loose and catch on to the wackyness that Raymond was trying to portray. Coloured text is not usually something that publishers are keen to let loose with. It limits the opportunities for selling International Rights as translating into other languages costs more for reprinting in all four colours. But sometimes the effect is just too good to pass by.

We are very aware of the need to balance illustrations and text. You know, white space and room around the words to let them speak. It's so awesome to see this book throw all those rules out the window. The text and images all become one and with the text being multi coloured it just works. The whole zany feel just flows into one and creates a page that jumps out at you.

Thanks Penguin for the opportunity to produce this book. It's one we are going to be really proud of for a long time to come.

Thank you!

A big thank you to you all for your continued support since the earthquake. We really appreciate your kind words, it's really nice to come to a workplace where your clients care so much.
The other day we also received a beautiful package. A special thank you to Sandy (Sarah's mum) for sending us this gorgeous gift and lovely message all the way from America. Sarah was out of commission for a few days before the earthquake - luckily she was sent home a couple of days before Feb 22. We love the chocolates and are all enjoying the yummy treats.

THANK YOU! :)

We are back

It's so great to be back in the office and back into an almost normal routine. We are so grateful to all our wonderful clients and the lovely messages you have all sent and the blissful work you keep sending us. Contact with the outside world and knowing that things are still operating normally somewhere is so important at the moment. It's really helping us all get our lives back together as well.

Our team: We are all feeling very lucky to be able to account for all of our immediately family and most of our friends. Plus we all have our homes. YES!
Anita and Trisha's homes have suffered the most with Anita's house inside the cordon and having no power there or at her mothers house were she is currently living. They did find though that their log burner had a wetback and with the little water that is now coming into the property have hot showers that rock. It could be another couple of weeks before power is restored to their area. "Flash" camping has become another new Christchurch catch phrase.
Trisha is in Brookhaven which has been badly hit with liquefaction. Horrid stuff. We had a big dig there on Wednesday to try and get rid of most of it. But now there is wind and the dust is unbelievable. Just as well there is no water for clothes washing as it wouldn't come back inside clean.
Sarah is reacquainting herself with a port-a-loo (or as they are know in America a port-a-potty) having only just got rid of one from the September quake. But they have power which is huge.
Maria is lucky to be living in Hornby which hasn't been too badly affected. Thank goodness as she has been keeping things running for us while we all try and put our home lives back together.
Anna has power now, but no water or sewerage. She's taking a bit longer to get her head back together and will be back with us shortly.

Digging at Trisha's.

Our studio: Out here in the country as far away as we can get from the CBD is blissful. We've been really lucky this time and haven't been very badly effected. We lost power for 30 hours, but that is all. Our water is still running and our lovely septic tank is working overtime. It's great to be a haven for everyone in town to come and sit, sh*t and shower. Those small basic luxuries in life mean such a lot when you don't have them. And now with this wind, it's great to be out of the dust.

Our work: Yah, couriers are running again as of today. You should have seen the pile in the letterbox this morning! Our internet is working at 90% of it's normal speed. It is going down occassionally, but under the circumstances it's very workable. This means that our email and ftp server are up and running. So we are all feeling very lucky to still have our place of work and jobs to come back too.

Our head space: I saved this one till last as it is probably the biggest. Everyone is moving forward to put their lives back together. Our first day back involved lots of tears and many stories. The feeling of relief that we are all still able to be together is fantastic. The worry for family and friends and the stories that you hear around town are all things that will change our lives forever. On our first morning back I recorded our cup of tea and chat as everyone arrived. Zeta our wonderful cleaning lady was here to. It's in 3 parts if you want to listen (although I do apologise for some of the language :-).


part one


part two


part three



Yesterday (Tues one week on) was a biggie. We all went up to Victoria Park at the top of the Port Hills and sat in the sun looking out over our broken city. It was a lovely way to spend the two minutes of silence and reflect. For me it helped turn a corner and focus on moving forward.

Thanks so much to everyone out there who is allowing us the opportunities to pick up our lives again and for the support you are all offering. Our thoughts are with all the families who have suffered so much loss. It's great to be a kiwi and to be part of such a caring community.

All the best from the team at Book Design

Anita, Sarah, Maria, Trisha, Anna and Kim xx