Layout and cover in progress

1/05/09 8:30pm We’ve just had what feels like 6 weeks off for Christmas and Hogmanay, but it still doesn’t feel like enough. Anyway, there have been several rounds of edits like I described in the previous update, with the main InDesign doc going back and forth – along with a PDF – between myself and the editors. I think we only have one more round to go which will happen tomorrow morning, then I can get the whole doc ready to ship to the printer and start working on laying out the cover, which unfortunately has been pushed to the very end of the production cycle again. Luckily, when I send the main document to the printer they have so much to do that it gives me several days to tie up loose ends, design and/or update house ads adn subs forms, and of course layout the cover. The cover design is a multi-step repeating process just like the interior, only it happens much faster – albeit with many more rounds (unless I get lucky, and everyone loves the very first one I put together, which happens once in a blue moon). The photographer is finishing up the high-resolution files now as well, so as long as I receive those tomorrow or the next day, we’re in good shape.

12/30/08 1:30am Ok, kinda lost the thread there for a while with Christmas and all that crap being squeezed in there. So as I mentioned in the previous update, Joel sent me low-resolution jpegs to use for placement in layout. So, I’d gone through a round of edits with the editorial guys on the individual layouts that will comprise the entire magazine – me sending them PDFs and InDesign docs to place edits in, and then having them sent back to me to clean up and make edits they can’t. That included the first-round layouts of the feature well shot by Joel. All those documents were then combined into one massive inDesign file which we call the official round one of edits, which is sent in PDF form to all the editors on staff, and the inDesign doc to one of the editors who will input the majority of their changes, which they supply to him as marked-up PDFs. Following those changes and edits – which sometimes may take three or four days depending on the size of the issue – I’ll work on cleaning up photography that was supplied to us, and tell Joel which images I need cleaned up for final production. I haven’t began to think about the cover yet, but that needs to happen soon as well. Some samples below include the first of two contents pages, the intro page to the whole analog section, and the opening spread of photography (low-resolution, not cleaned up) that opens the main story in the magazine.

12/18/08 8:45pm Just checked my email and found that Joel had sent me a bunch of raw, low-resolution jpegs to use for placement.

I’m excited now, they look really good, even in this completely un-touched, low-resolution, RGB mode. I need to try to have a lyout ready by end of day tomorrow so I can get him image selections that he can work on over the weekend. All turntables are packed and were dropped off here earlier, those need to be shipped back to their respective manufacturers/distributors. Deadline for layout – not print deadline – just the whole mag in place for the first major round of edits…we have smaller rounds of edits on individual docs, then several humongous rounds of edits on the mag in one doc… deadline is Tuesday, so…in good shape so far, about 70% of the way through the whole thing approx I’d guess. Will work on this layout tomorrow in the a.m.

12/18/08 12:25pm I went over to Joel’s studio around 930 this morning. The publisher couldn’t make it to help put the turntables together, so we muddled through ourselves and figured them out pretty much. I called the editor a few times and he got one of the manufacturers to call me and talk me through a couple of complicated moments, but it looks like we’re all good. Three of them had hinged plastic lids which had to be removed completely in order not to have crazy reflections and light going everywhere. Joel and his assistant will now spend the day shooting, and send me jpegs probably tomorrow to use as placeholders in the layout. Joel will have a lot of post-production work to do, but if I lay out the page with rough images, I can save him some work by only having to finish the images I really need.

The turntables will be re-packed and probably delivered back to my office tonight. (I just had lunch with my regular photographer Adam Voorhes, take a look at his work here – which is pretty awesome – I’m back to shooting with him next issue provided he’s available).

12/18/08 12:40am I just heard from the publisher that he’s stuck in Chicago tonight because of bad weather. So I’l have to try putting the turntables together myself. Guh. I don’t mind doing it but they are SO expensive, and I have clumsy Hulk hands. Oh well.

12/17/08 10:40am So I thought I’d track the progress of a cover and feature well through production from when I get involved in the process. Up to this point, I’ve been receiving copy for the issue, meeting about content and what’s going in this issue, getting info on the production schedule and priorities and making plans on how to work all this around my life and other projects (which obviously have to play second fiddle to my paying, full-time job). So…for the cover, we’re featuring four separate turntables for our ‘analog issue’. I’ve received them from the manufacturers, driven them over to the photographers studio, and tomorrow myself and the publisher are going over there for the first part of the shoot. I need the publisher there to put the turntables together, and meet the photographer (who I’ve worked with before a lot in the past, but who’s never worked for this particular magazine). I’ve put together a few sketches for the photographer which I just emailed to him, and have no doubt I’ll have to explain a lot further to him as they’re pretty rough. I want something really graphic, and bold, in addition to the particular post-production style that Joel will bring to the finished artwork.

I’m not staying for the whole shoot because a) Joel is not the type of photographer who needs someone there, once he knows what you want, he’ll get it and then he’ll get what he wants and then you have a really good selection of images to choose from and b) I’m fucking slammed this week. The last thing I need to do is stand around a studio for a day being redundant. I can do that in the office! Oh and lets not forget Christmas shopping. So, once we get there tomorrow, we’ll spend an hour getting ready, discussing what I want from the shoot, setting up the turntables, then I’ll get out of there.

Explore posts in the same categories: Clients, color choice, Covers, deadlines, design, Magazines, Photography, Production, production in progress, Typography, Why is it like this?

Tags: joel salcido, layout in progress, magazine production, product photography, Production

You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.