“This has all happened before. And it will happen again.” – Cylon Hybrid, Battlestar Galactica.

That said, catalogs are SO fun…

At the Production Meeting with the publishing team the previous Friday, we reviewed the pagination, cover content, and set the catalog size at 200 pages. We decided to aim at an art to press deadline for the end of the month as reasonable, if tight.

So last Friday morning, while I am well under way with stripping in the 2010 pricing to the re-designed 2010 catalog and setting the folios, I have an email from my contact. The Sales Force needs us to add 9 pages of critical products to the book.

Fine. Re-Paginate, 212 pages.

TECH ALERT, but read it anyway. Pros, you can skip this paragraph, you already know what’s coming.  [ For most print processes, bound books have to be set in multiples of 4 pages, and some large scale print methods such as high speed web presses, use signatures of 8 or even 16 page sheets. So adding ODD numbers of pages is always problematical. Even the very common stapled booklet needs to be printed 4 pages art a time, each sheet printed both sides, folded once on the spine. Okay, get it now? ] End Tech Alert

Midday: I take a call with one of the content editors, adding three more pages. Re-Paginate the book again. Still 212 pages, but just barely. Now the Index is crushed to one page and half of the inside back cover.

Oh yeah… put back all the little icons they had you delete last round. (&#%$#@!!!)

4:15 PM. Another email. Adding four more products. Thankfully one requested was already in the book. But will have to expand two items to a two page spread from one, to keep from TOTALLY fouling the right | left spreads and re-laying out the entire book from the insertion point. Even with the formidable tools in InDesign, it’s a non-trivial task. But at least now we are back to having two full pages to use for the Index. (That inside back cover space is still there to invade!)

Re-paginate. Book is now 216 pages.

Email back: “Of course this is complex enough that the “end-of-the-month” target is likely well trashed —with an anvil, but we’ll forge on.” Can you see the look on the Coyote’s face as he plummets into the canyon? Well, I’ve had that look. And will probably have it again before I retire.

Meanwhile, every other project in the Studio gets pushed back, and my clients circle like hungry wolves. Somehow I will tag-team some of the most pressing work into the rotation. This has all happened before. And it will happen again.

Of course, one of the advantages of being a self-employed freelancer, you can choose work on the weekends. Certainly motivated. Which is time to stop mucking about on the Studo Blog and get back to it!

But I still dread each approaching Friday with appropriate suspicion and paranoia.

Till next!

The Credit Crisis Visualized by Jonathan Davis

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

“The goal of giving form to a complex situation like the credit crisis is to quickly supply the essence of the situation to those unfamiliar and uninitiated. This project was completed as part of my thesis work in the Media Design Program, a graduate studio at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. For more on my broader thesis work exploring the use of new media to make sense of a increasingly complex world, visit my website here. or email me at: jonathan.jarvis@gmail.com

Visit The Crisis of Credit Visualized.

I sometimes (um… actually, routinely) rag on Flash, for being mostly used for the internet equivalent of dressing a whore as a Lady, essentially being …well…” flashy.” Mostly shiny objects and pretty lights, web 2.0 ooooh-shiny and little substance. It is also a very challenging application to master. Frustrating to both designers and programmers, as a development platforms that is decidedly schizophrenic, requiring both artistic and design skills on one hand and programmer and coding skills on the other hemisphere.

But this is possibly one of the best, and most useful uses of the application that I have ever seen. Aside from being graphically tight and beautiful, it also gives an overview of a complex, and lately emotional topic with amazing clarity. And furthermore it isn’t selling sneakers or dressing up another sketchy blockbuster film site, it’s providing useful social purpose!

“The Crisis of Credit Visualized distills the economic crisis into a short and simple story by giving it form. It is also argues that designers have the ability to see a complex situation, then turn around and communicate it to others. By giving graphic form to the credit crisis, it becomes comprehensible. Not only do economic activities take shape, but new relationships can emerge between these shapes.” – Jonathan Davis

If ever I pray to the gods, it’s to get to do work this good! **Applause**