One beautiful series of of art books that Bookmobile prints is Blackston’s exhibition catalogs. We’ve been working with Blackston, owned by Rhiannon Kubicka and Theodore Blackston, since 2012. Theodore Blackston first heard about Bookmobile through The Drawing Center. Blackston prints about four exhibition catalogs a year, along with many reprints. We always look forward to seeing proofs because the work of the artists they represent and each exhibit is so fabulous.
One of the artists Blackston works with is Amy Feldman. She creates large, bold, playful abstract paintings, and she has three exhibition catalogs with Blackston: High Sign, Stark Types, and Dark Selects. We’ve seen more reprint orders for her titles than for any others. Stark Types was a reprint of the catalog that a Swedish gallery put out in conjunction with their exhibition.
The Blackston’s exhibition catalog series is a perfect example of how art book printing and short-run digital printing make an excellent match. Bookmobile’s print quality is superb, and our prices are affordable. Visitors to Blackston have an economical art book to buy on site—of if they can’t make it to the exhibition, they can still buy a catalog to see the artist’s work in print.
Blackston works closely with our rep Gretchen Franke on each print run. Gretchen receives the print order and PDF files from Theodore Blackston, along with any special instructions and the deadline, and then schedules a full set of printed proofs and the ship date. For some issues, we receive color prints to match the proofs to as well. Each issue coincides with a new exhibition opening, and Bookmobile can turn the books around in under two weeks to meet every deadline. From Theodore:
Highest quality production. Very responsive team. Great and easy to work with.
All of Blackston’s interiors print on Bookmobile’s 70-lb. white uncoated stock—uncoated stock is a great look for color interiors. The interiors print entirely in color and are a nice, square 8″ x 8″ trim size, with covers on 12-pt. C1S with no lamination. Bookmobile archives all files, so issues can be reprinted as needed. Bookmobile’s short runs improve Blackston’s cash flow, save storage space, and give the gallery the opportunity to control and manage the inventory and reprints.
Interested in what Bookmobile can print for your museum or gallery? Contact me!