Holy hell what are we going to do?!
Don't panic everyone. Even in the opinion of the esteemed
Professor Steve Hoskins, our group has a remarkable
amount of organization and direction. Especially considering
the span of time with which we've had to do this all in.
The following is a run down on the points we covered today
as a group.
Eric Wolinski has cowboy'd up and said he'd take a crack at
composing a short companion edition to our collection of
books. As a group we decided that this would be a simple
card stock and saddle stitched edition of the same color as
the slip case and will slide in with the other volumes as the
first unit. That being said, give Eric as soon as you can
the following.
- Process materials: Images, words, ideas, sketches all relating to your process on the project
- A short bio of yourself as well as what your research is about and how it relates to the topic of visual culture and our group's manifesto/statement (see blackboard)
Keep that portion about your research rather short. Most of us might be struggling to compose a significant amount of copy as it is for these books, and there's no point in having the companion bio on you be repeated in your own volume. Just a short condensed statement about your particular research. Eric . . . it will be up to you to take everyone's intel and edit for the common denominator and design those pages from there.
The group has decided on solid colored book covers, so every member should take a moment to post a response to Brad Borkowski's entry, stating which color you would like to use. Let's do this rather than have eight individual posts saying "Hey I'm gonna be" this or that color.
If you haven't done so yet, register on LuLu's website so that you have an active account with which to not only upload your book files , but to seek out help if needed via their live chat feature.
The type has been chosen by the group. The books will all be spec'd out with Trade Gothic and Officina Serif. The two make a harmonious pairing. Some general guidelines follow.
Trade Gothic
- Titles
- Headings
- Sub headings
- Callouts (if any)
- Pull quotes (if any)
Officina Serif
- Copy text
- Captions
- Folios
With regards to both typefaces, most of us will find that we have quite a few within each family. Use good judgement with regards to this and try not to represent every single member. As a group, we agreed on a point system divisible by eight. So consider 8pt Officina Serif a good starting point for body copy. Larger fonts would go up in multiples like, 16pt 32pt and so on. If anyone runs into some trouble or concerns with this once their layouts start to take place. Please let everyone know as soon as possible. It could be that the jump from 8pt to 16pt type might not look right on our specific layout size.
Finally there's the "question of time" (good Depeche Mode song if you're not familiar). When the group first discussed deadlines and getting our product back on time, we figured that LuLu should have the files by Friday the 28th. Talk about crunch time right? I re iterated the fact that LuLu does offer the express production option at $25, which promises to have books that are uploaded by 4 p.m. printed and ready for shipping by the next business day. For most of the members, the fee for this service versus the yield in a full weekend to finalize designs, seemed like a valuable trade off. Thus extending the design time into the upcoming weekend.
LuLu's production facilities according to Brad, are located in North Carolina. One could probably assume that the shipping between here and there is relatively fast. In addition, it could also be assumed that if faster shipping was desired, the cost would be affordable as well. I will get confirmation on what the expected standard shipping time to Richmond would be right away. Everyone needs the ability to make the most informed decision they can, and choose whether they aim to finish before or immediately after the weekend.
As I write this, I wonder if uploading files on a Friday would even make a difference to the production timeline at LuLu. I will get an answer from them on this as well.
—sean
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