As an agency, one of the questions we get asked most is how to best promote one's work overseas. Considering how time-poor commissioners currently are, and how often they seem to move around different companies, this can be a daunting task. Even moreso, many illustrators are not graphic designers, and often times I see promos put together that will simply not register a blip on the radar to the discerning art director. Regardless of your skill, if the promo looks bad, its likely to get tossed out. I know this because I used to pop stacks of these in the recycling bin every month in my former life as an AD in New York.
When starting the agency, especially one so far away with such lofty ambitions, it was very important that our printed promo was of the highest standard, and I think that our initial successes are partly due to the fact that we can appeal to a certain aesthetic among commissioners with our printed materials. Having a strong background in design, and 32 fabulous artists to back you up doesn't hurt either :)
The other important thing was that we agreed as an agency to pay 100% of all promo costs in the first 18 months in order to attract the calibre of artists that would eventually make up the current agency roster. In this regard, we were spending our own money, and I knew that we had to make something that would have some sort of secondary benefit. Not just a catalogue of works that would get lost in a sea of images, but a special object that someone would keep on hand. A gift of sorts.
To this end, I wanted to share with everyone the process we have just recently underwent in the past six months developing our latest promo, the 2008 Jacky Winter Field Guide. It was a grueling process, more expensive and time-consuming then we could have ever imagined, but at the same time, we are so proud of the end result.
I tried to document the process as best as possible, but not everything may be here. The photos are also mostly from my iphone and not the greatest quality. Regardless, I hope this is of some educational or entertainment value to someone out there...
This was our very first promo, the 2007 Field Guide. The original idea behind the guide was that it would be published each year, and its design would reference a particularly interesting vintage field guide. It took awhile to track down the original photographer, but we found him in the end, and he gave us permission to use the layout.
There were only 12 artists when we first started out. These books were heavy though, despite their size. On our first roadshow, I threw about 150 copies in my luggage and had to pay a fortune in excess baggage. The best part was handing them out at ad agencies, because people thought I was a crazy bearded man handing them some sort of religious tract about birds.
Each Artist had their own opening spread and follow-on pages. Each opener contained a short bit of text that talks about the artist as if they were a bird, and then the following page would have that artists' interpretation of the Jacky Winter. This spread was a particular favourite of mine by Oslo Davis.
The book was 'Pad Bound' like a tear-off pad of paper, meaning that each 310gsm sheet could be removed without damaging the book. It also meant it could be opened completely flat. The guide itself was packaged with a single piece of card that was hand scored and rubber stamped with 'Featured Specimen'. This stand would allow a page to be displayed without the folio (page #'s, etc) on a desk. The cover of the book was printed separately and then hand-folded and wrapped around the self-covering pages of the guide.
Our next promo was a belated holiday gift sent out around the end of January. I agonised for weeks about the best time to send it, especially as there are cultural differences in terms of how long people take off for holidays between Europe and the US. I thought January was a safe bet. As postage costs an absolute fortune from Australia, I wanted to create something more lightweight that could be distributed more widely than the field guide, which was severely limited by a lack of funds to post them out.
Each artist had their own bookplate which was printed on a self-adhesive stock, the rear which had agency contact details on it. There was room on the front to write your name, with statements like 'Ex-Libris' and 'I Belong To' etc. above. To augment our existing mailing list, we purchased some additional data from Bikini Lists, officially the worst named business, ever. The lists were good though, and much to my surprise, yielded a great deal of written thank-you's and letters of acknowledgment, which definitely made me feel that we were on the right track. It also led to some pretty good commissions as well!
With almost a year passing between the last Field Guide and the roster almost tripling, it was very important that our next promo be our best ever. I swore to myself I wouldn't repeat my first mistake of making something that would be too expensive to produce and/or ship, as we were still paying out of pocket for this. But then John brought in these deck of cards, and it sort of took on a life of its own from that point.
These 'Mixies' were the main inspiration behind the promo. They were originally a card game from the 50's, made by a company called Ed-u-cards. The illustrations were absolutely phenomenal inside.
The idea was that there were a variety of characters inside, each one having separate heads, torsos, and feet, which could be mixed up in a variety of ways, often resulting in hilarity. Yes. Hilarity.
Here's an example from the original deck of some interesting combos. We tried for days to track down the original illustrator with no luck, but there are some great sets on Flickr with these cards and other games that Ed-u-cards produced.
My personal favourite thing about the cards was on the back though. When you put them in order, they made this excellent flip animation featuring a Polar Bear, a Police Officer, and a Millionaire.
So that was the seed of the idea. Whereto from there? Well we could do a similar deck of cards, but we needed the traditional folio component there as well. If we went too thick though, we would be sending out parcels rather than letters. I know this because I spent weeks deciphering the Australia Post pricing guidelines. Apparently you could still get letter rates if the package was 20mm thick. So I though instead of building up, why not build out, and have three separate components for the cards, therefore it could act as a display. I immediately drew upon my background as a packaging finished artist, and started to make some mockups.
The first fun part was finding a packaging specialist who would actually help out. This was our first design, that was cut out of a long and narrow piece of card, and folded over itself. For days on end I would be building these models at night trying to figure something out, taking pictures, and emailing them to random packaging companies and printers, often never receiving a reply.
Instead of thinking, 'Maybe we should simplify this idea...' I said 'Maybe we need more detailed diagrams...'
Something like this...
So the separate cards would go in the sleeves which would sit in a box that stood up, all measuring standard DL-size, which would then fit inside an envelope pictured above, leaving room for the traditional field guide which would be the same dimensions. Simple, right? Still, nobody would touch it.
Finally, after weeks of failed leads and meetings, I came upon a beacon of hope known as The Carton House. The funny thing about projects like this is you find that if you look hard enough, there is a business that does basically everything, no matter how bizarre our specific. After an initial meeting with our sales-rep Noel (whose business card featured an attached box that folds up), I was confident I was in the right hands. All it takes sometimes is someone telling you that your bizarre idea is no problem whatsoever.
Noel took my rudimentary dielines and miniature models to a packaging specialist at their die manufacturer and over a series of emails and calls we arrived at a design that looked something like this. A double-walled with tray, with a folded insert that was glued in to make the compartments. Seeing the final prototype, I got the same rush that I often get when I see a truly amazing sketch come through for a commission.
The carton was a pretty simple form, but it was essential that the overall depth did not go over 20mm as mentioned previously. We also started to get stock in for the Field Guide, and determined that we needed 5mm room inside to fit that in. Small measurements I know, but being even a mm out on a packaging dieline can mean the difference between success, or not even being able to get the thing in the envelope...
With the original field guide, I would literally walk to ad agencies, wait until lunchtime, and hand them to people as they walked in. Days or weeks later I would get calls from the same agency saying they saw the guide on their colleagues desk, and could they have a copy. Therefore, it was essential that this be made into some type of display. I originally thought we could make something that would just fold out of a cut on the box, but after testing with the prototype, we figured that wouldn't work. We would have to order struts from an external supplier, and have to fit those in as well. Again, I had no idea these things existed or what they were even called, but in some ways that can be the best part of doing this type of promo. Had I known more of the terminology and methods at the start, I may have been able to communicate my needs better to the printers and formecutters I was calling, and saved myself alot of time.
Finally, after all the to-ing and fro-ing, the final dieline was designed and sent over. Here you can see the tray, carton, and envelope, on the one sheet, along with fold and cut marks.
Once the final dieline was in place, it was time to brief an artist for the Artwork. I had already spoken to Lachlan Conn about doing this, as I thought he could bring a very unique perspective to the artwork. Even though we confirmed that the original artwork was in the public domain and out of copyright, we wanted to make it our own in some way.
Lachlan changed the Ed-u-Cards logo to Learn-u-Well, and Mixies to Mixups. We only had a budget for two colours, so we decided to stick with Blue and Red spots, which would be punchy as solids, but also able to be overprinted to form a purple. From working together at Is Not Magazine, I knew Lachlan knew how to use overprinting to his advantage to make two colours work as hard as four.
The final art was absolutely spectacular, with lots of great small touches. The Air-mail side of the package was a personal favourite. People don't get enough air-mail these days, so I thought this would be a welcome addition to make the box/envelope a special piece, both coming in the mail, or handed over in person.
The front of the Box was more of an homage to the original packaging, with a new character by Lachlan, and even a hidden shout-out to one of our Favourite Oslo Davis pieces if you look close enough...
Lachlan did a great wood-pattern for the tray, but applying the art to the actual dieline was tricky in terms of masking and rotating the right parts to get it lining up properly as well as having bleed in the proper sections. The above shot shows the artwork in place with overprint preview turned on. Note the circles on the back of the tray which were added as a last minute change so there would be a way to remove the cards from the tray.
We also couldn't help but put in a few easter eggs for those who may be tempted to take the pack apart... Note the great use of overprinting and halftoning to get the shadowing on the plaque.
With the packaging artwork with the printer, it was time to move onto the most important part, the actual characters! To get started, I wrote up a detailed brief that explained how to structure the character, which included putting things on a white background, confining 'signature' elements to a single card, and encouraging everyone to explore things other than humans.
We then set up an template that everyone used to pop their sketches in to make sure that they were hitting the right marks where the dividers were, so that when the cards got mixed-up they would look natural.
The sketches started coming in, like this one from Oslo Davis. It was definitely a challenge for each artist to work with the strange proportion of the cards. The size of the cards was dictated by the space we had in the box, as well as how many cards we could fit on one sheet (more on that later)
This initial sketch from Cailan was a perfect fit. With the hearts on top, and grassy background all in their own card. The sketch did have to get modified to hit the correct markers though, especially around the waist.
Another great sketch from Tim Molloy.
Initial testing of how the parts are matching up.
Hilarity ensues...
The back of the cards were printed in a single spot color. I thought it would be a great idea to have some flip-book style animation in keeping with style of the original mixies. Since some of the promos were being sent to motion graphic studios and production firms, I asked three artists who had experience in motion to do a 32 frame animation which would be printed frame by frame on the back of the relevant deck. Below, you can find Clemens Habicht's take on things. Can you spot the bird?
[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/1895680[/vimeo]
With the Mixups artwork on their way, it was time to find a new cover for the Field Guide. Over the course of the past year, we have become quite the collectors of vintage field guides. Our original pick was a gorgeous endpaper illustration from one of Roger Tory Peterson's field guides, but after tracking down the publishers who owned the rights, we couldn't afford the reproduction fee. Then this came across our desk and it was too good to pass up...
The best part about these books were the photos of the other books in the series. Know your Monkey was definitely my favourite, but Stuart was partial to Enjoy Your Poodle, because it looked like the owner was literally throwing the poodle by the head. It was funny at the time. Tracking down the copyright owners of this was a whole other story though. We tracked it back to the Hartz Mountain Company, a pet food and supply manufacturer in New Jersey, but the furthest I got was a whole lot of confused people in Human Resources. It was interesting to research the history of the company though. It turns out the the original publisher ended up being the same company who founded the Village Voice, and is now somehow a huge Real Estate developer. A few more days of Google-ing, and we somehow turned up a phone number for the original photographer, Tom Caravaglia. By some crazy twist of fate, we called him up and got him on the second ring. At 80 years old, and with Parkinsons disease, he is still actively shooting in New York, and recounted the drama of the actual parrot shoot, and how the model almost had her finger bit off. He then gave us his gracious permission to use the image for the promo.
Our 'Enhanced' version of the cover featured a few new additions to the Pet Library series of books, and yet another easter egg, this time for fans of the show Lost. We can't help it, we're addicted. Can you spot it?
We then started gathering the actual artwork for the Guide. Due to the large amount of artists, we were only able to afford one page per illustrator. We chose a lightweight cast-coated stock for these which are traditionally used for food packaging. One side is a high gloss, displaying a hero image, and the other side was matte which had more samples at a smaller size. Eamo's is displayed here.
Since everyone already did a custom piece for the Mixups, we didn't require a second original interpretation of the Jacky Winter, but rather asked each artist to submit a piece that had a bird in it. Not everyone had a relevant piece, so some folks added birds in to existing work, or came to the party with a whole new piece. Editing everyones work was definitely one of the most challenging parts. Even though we get most of our business through the online folios, it still can't compare to seeing an illustration in print. I wanted to showcase the diversity of everyone's work, but also give them an up close glimpse of what the work actually looked like. In this way it was important to do a close and tight crop of everyones bird image to showcase each artists specific craft, and use the rear of the card to focus on more conceptual work. At the end of the day though, these pieces were still only a single entry-point to each artists folio.
Both the Mixup cards and Field Guide sheets were printed at an offset printer separate to the packaging. To keep costs down we ganged up everything on one A0 sheet. Alot of money in printing is in cutting and collating and pre-press. We thought by imposing everything ourself, and collating it ourself, we would save some money. This was the beginning of our nightmare in some regards... Like with the packaging, explaining the concept to printers required alot of diagrams and explaining before finding a decent printer who could do it for a reasonable price.
Here is the laid-up sheet of all the glossy side of the field guide pages. The piece on the lower right-hand corner is a special card for the gallery with our motto.
...and the reverse matte side. Note that we had some extra room, so we did some with-comp slips. I find that pricing a full sheet of printing is good practice as you can go in with other people and put whatever you like on the sheet, then quote separately for guillotining. Sort of like sharing studio space.
The most satisfying part of the process by far was seeing all the new mixup characters on a single sheet. Getting the trim and bleed right for the middle card was a bit tricky, but it worked out great in the end.
You can almost make out the frames of the animation on the backs of the cards here. We tried to fit some business cards in there with the extra room, but it didn't really work with the light stock. We had to keep weight down for postage, but more importantly, any thicker and they wouldnt fit in the box! We made sure to settle upon the stock while constructing the box to make sure they would fit properly.
Now all the artwork is sent out, the real fun begins. The good old manual labour. The first thing up was the field guide covers, which for cost reasons, were printed at a third printer. Because we wanted it to have a weathered feel, it was important that the trim was perfect, and in my experience, the only way to get perfection with print, is to do it yourself. So we left room on the final trim for the covers, and then trimmed each one by hand, so it fell exactly on the edge that we wanted it. Our intern at the time, Claire, proved instrumental in this task. Each one was then hand folded along the crease that was in the artwork to add to the effect.
Then came the cards, sheets, and cartons. In about 30 boxes in our new (unpainted) offices.
All this was timed so we could have 100 promos complete for three of our artists to take to New York for the ICON5 festival. We had a working bee set up the entire weekend to get the collating and assembly done. Ben Sanders even came from Ballarat where he imparted his precious experience working at his father's press in setting up our collating table, which at one point had six people all walking around it.
Then there was the carton assembly station. Each tray base needed to be hand propped with a dowel and ruler, and then folded up into eachother. The tray inserts also didn't seem to stick as well as in the prototype, so each one needed to be taped down with double-sided tape.
Then there was the binding table. (As well as Borek). We hand bound the first 100 field guides with a rivet tool handily called the 'Cropadile' (thank you, eBay). Though after the first 100 sets, my hand was worn out, and we found a different method that looked better, and also allowed the individual pages to be removed.
...then the struts. They each had to have double sided tape applied to them and set aside.
Near the end of the weekend we were drowning in paper and card. To make matters worse, when we opened the box on the Mixup cards, all the animation frames had dropped out. Of course the one piece of printed matter I didnt look at on press was the one to get messed up. The guys were leaving for Icon in two days, and we didn't have the crucial component of the promo. The printers checked their proofs which had the correct artwork, and agreed to reprint it the following day. They also called in 5-6 casual staff to help collate it into the sets, as well as send it to the hotel in New York where the conference was via express courier. Of course the courier was late and by the time the shipment arrived, the conference was over. Considering all the work that was done at the outset to get this done in time for ICON, it was a devastating blow. Luckily I still have friends and family in the states who were able to pick up the boxes, and we decided to send it to 100 clients in New York.
After the initial setback, the promo took a bit of a back seat to things, especially as we were in the middle of setting up the new office and gallery, and the sheer task of trying to collate almost 100,000 cards was simply overwhelming, especially as most of my day is spent actually being an agent! Luckily we had a new employee who was skilled at wrangling volunteers, and over the course of 12 weeks, the remaining cards were collated.
As more pieces were put together, they started dominating the whole office...
It got a bit inconveniencing at times...
But in the end...
...they got done.
The finished pack.
So that's basically it. Minus the application of a few thousand clear dots and address labels. And finding a mail forwarding service to send them, and a whole load of other things we never saw coming but somehow figured out a way to get around...
Six months almost from concept to completion. Lots of late nights, cramped necks, ink-stained fingers, and more money than I feel comfortable admitting. Will the financial investment pay off? Time will tell I suppose. At the end of the day it was really fun to work on. Everyone at the agency really came together, and got to explore an interesting brief. Even though I can't look at it anymore, people tell me it looks great, and I hope someone gets a kick out of it when they get it in the mail and can appreciate the work that went into it, and how it reflects back on all the work we do here.
If you are one of those lucky souls on our physical mailing list, you should be receiving your very own copy soon. Otherwise, we have a very limited amount of copies for sale from our shop over here. If you are responsible for commissioning illustration and want to be added to our physical mailing list, make sure to get in touch to get added.
Next time of course, things will be different. It will be smaller, lighter, less expensive to ship, just like this one was supposed to be... Stay tuned for more!
