Bookmobile recently printed a beautiful art gallery catalog for the Dr. M. T. Geoffrey Yeh Art Gallery at St. John’s University in Queens, NY. Isamu Noguchi: Patent Holder: Designing the World is a unique exhibition catalog with a very tall portrait format, 8-3/4″ x 11-3/4″.
We began working with Parvez Mohsin, the Director at Yeh Art Gallery, circuitously. Bookmobile exhibits at the National Museum Publishing Seminar. I don’t always get to meet everyone who attends, so after each conference I follow up with all attendees about our fantastic art book printing, of course. I sent an email to Peter Blaiwas at Vern Associates, an editorial, design, and production house for fine art books. I hadn’t met Peter in person at the conference, but we exchanged emails about what printing options Bookmobile provides (a lot: see Twenty-One Ways to Embellish Your Print Books). Peter didn’t have any projects for me at the time. But in early December 2014, Peter let me know Parvez was looking for a short-run printer for an art gallery catalog for an exhibition. The project wasn’t a good fit for Vern Associates, because Parvez was handling the interior design internally and also needed a very quick turn (which is often the case for exhibition catalogs).
I sent a quote to Parvez for printing and ended up in his spam folder. I called him as well to follow up, knowing that my quote attachments often flag my emails as spam. Parvez found the Bookmobile quote to be very competitive and affordable and our incredibly quick turn was just what he needed. So, after all of these communication twists and turns, we were able to work together. We printed a run of 500 copies, with files here on January 21, proofs out on the 25th, an okay to print with cover and interior corrections on the 26th, and books shipped on the 29th. That’s seven business days!
The Isamu Noguchi exhibition catalog is another perfect example of how art book printing and short-run digital printing make an excellent match. Bookmobile’s print quality is superb, our prices are affordable, and our turnaround cannot be matched.
The book’s tall trim size is outside what we say we can “officially” produce. We can definitely produce a book up to 11-5/8″ square with no interior bleeds, or 11-1/2″ square with interior bleeds. Because this book had a smaller page count of fifty, we could make the 8-3/4″ x 11-3/4″ work. To get the maximum trim size for a title is complex: we check how large of a cover we can print and laminate, and how large of a trim size our binder can accommodate successfully.
We are looking at adding a PUR binder to our production line, so that we can print color interiors on heavier coated stocks and still get a durable bind; and we’re also hoping that it will allow us to produce even larger trim sizes. I receive many quote requests for 12″ x 12″ and larger fine art books, and I’d really like to be able to print them all!
The Isamu Noguchi interior printed 4-color on 80-lb. white uncoated stock at 382 PPI—a terrific fit and look for the interior photographs of the artist’s work. I will have samples of this exhibition catalog and others at AWP, table 532, so come on by and see it firsthand. Unfortunately the gallery exhibit in New York ended on March 19th, but check out The Noguchi Museum to see if any traveling exhibitions are coming near you.
Interested in what Bookmobile can print for your exhibit, museum, or gallery? Contact me!