Book update 03 — 21/12/2024
Throwback
I've come to realise that NoGood is essentially a throwback to my teenage years, the late 90's and early 00's. To physical media, floppy disks and game cartridges. To Casio watches and replaceable batteries and Playstations.
When I was a teenager I used to record songs from the radio on cassette tapes. I would patiently listen to the radio until a specific song came on, at which point I ran to my stereo and pressed the play and record button simultaneously. A couple of seconds late every time.
Later I'd torrent Japanese pop records on Napster. I learned about bitrates, open ports and file types and figured out which search filters worked best. Though I never knew what file I'd end up with. I modded my Playstation so I could play a region-locked copy of Winning Eleven, a Japanese soccer game. I screwed open the console and replaced the chip, feeling like a true hacker doing something very illegal. If it worked I'd spend the next hours trying to make sense of Japanese in-game menus.
I gave this short introduction to the printers I visited last week. I'm not sure if they understood exactly what I was talking about, but they showed me lots of samples and beautifully designed books all the same. It looks like my initial estimate — €7000 to produce 200 books — was pretty accurate. Some of my suggestions, like using a variety of paper stock and weights, barely move the price. Others, like creating a cardboard sleeve and using Pantones, are relatively expensive to produce and will most likely be scrapped.
Crowdfunding
We're currently at 31 pre-orders, covering about 45% of the production costs. An extra special supporter even bought a set of five books!
Next steps
I started designing the first spreads last week, though I think I'll take a short break over the holidays.
