OryCon 35 Pubs are Done

by Meredith 1. November 2013 22:39

On Saturday, I had to take over doing the pocket program and spent most of the weekend and into Monday building a new publication. I had all the content and had already tested creating the program grids so it should have been pretty simple to complete. But oh the issues I had with formatting! I wasted way too much time wrestling with character and paragraph formatting -- trying to recycle all of the styles that I had created in the souvenir book ended up being more trouble than it was worth. In the end, I cleared all of the formatting, made all new styles, and started from scratch. Everything worked way better after that.

Despite any headaches this project has given, it has been a fabulous opportunity to refine and refresh my print production skills. I’ve dealt with a printer (two actually) and their requirements, created new documents from scratch, gathered content, wrote new content, edited old content, prepped art, made ads, collected ads, and organized a complex layout in two publications. And the bonus… I got to brush up on my skills in Inkscape, Photoshop, and InDesign.

Yesterday, in between all the Halloween stuff I visited the printer and approved the proofs. The souvenir book and pocket program look great! Lithtex use a digital process for printing so the proof review was different than how I've done them in the past. They actually had both books completely bound and cut just as we would see them. It was pretty cool. I was going to do a tour of the printing process but totally forgot about it. I'll ask about it next year.

I'm already thinking about what I want to try out next year. I would love to get all of the souvenir book in full color and on glossy paper. I'll need to get creative with the quotes to see if that can happen. I'm also interested in feedback from the convention membership. I would like to know more about what they want to see in the printed publications.

Want to see what I’ve been working on? Follow the image links to get a sneak preview of this year’s publications. Or you can go to the convention next week to collect a copy in person.

 

About Meredith Cook

Welcome to my repository of creative expression. I'm not a happy camper unless I am making something and over the years I have dabbled in quite a few different kinds of art projects. Some projects come from taking art classes, others are completely hobby driven, and projects like home decor come from a need to customize an item and make it better or unique. The overall theme behind what I do is to learn how to manipulate objects and practice what I know about visual aesthetic and good design. Oh yeah, and to have fun.

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