Jobs from the past - Number 55

Regular followers of this blog will know that my first post of every month is a "job from the past" so that I can show some of the really good work from years gone by...

Photography Editions - Chris Boot - Spring 2007

Chris Boot was a prolific publisher of photography books and this was the catalogue they produced to send to book shops, retailers and press about their new editions. Before  starting his own publishing imprint, Chris Boot was previously a director at Magnum Photos and editorial director at Phaidon Press.

This is a very special catalogue and is always admired when I show it to people. The reason is that it is one of the most modest pieces of print but has enormous impact. The size of the catalogue is A6 (148x105mm) and is a 64pp self-cover, saddle stitched,  portrait format and is printed on our lovely Offenbach Bible 60gsm. As a result it has a compact light feel but as you will see from the images, the reproduction, doesn't disappoint.

Spreads with the publication details are in dispersed with spreads using the amazing images which appear in the books themselves. Below is an image by Keld Helmer-Peterson from the book '23 Colour Photographs'

The catalogue is divided into five sections using a colour coded, printed foredge.

One of the points of interest about this catalogue to be made is about the economics of the project. Things have changed recently with Royal Mail and pricing in proportion but back in 2007, postal weight was the absolute key to keeping costs down. This 64pp catalogue weighs just 30 grams! - incredibly light, which meant that the postage cost for sending out this catalogue was just 23pence (probably even cheaper using mailsort). Another crucial factor is that as a 64pp A6, the whole job is printed on ONE sheet of SRA1 paper - yes, just one sheet! Most important is though, it has a fantastic, quality feel about it and has reproduced these images amazingly.

The superb art direction and design is by Glenn Howard and David Hawkins at Untitled http://www.untitledstudio.com/

Printing is by Push and is superlative. Reproduction is outstanding. In particular the coloured section bars running along the foredge are spot on, so great care has been taken with the finishing.

It appears that Chris Boot is no longer publishing books under his own imprint, however he is now an executive director of the Aperture Foundation based in New York. Aperture is a not-for-profit foundation, providing a network for the photo community and its audiences.

www.aperture.org
http://www.artbook.com/chrisboot.html
http://www.untitledstudio.com/
www.push-print.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 02.05.2014