Every once in a while, a job comes across your desk (or web site!) that confirms why you do what you do ... and how much fun you have doing it!
A recent call from a 92 year old gentleman and his daughter set in motion a special project for Alphagraphics Madison. Having spent the last four years writing about their family history and compiling photographs, documents and newspaper clippings, this father/daughter team was ready to convert their 575 page Word Doc into a hard bound book. Their goal was to have 100 books printed and delivered before a quickly approaching family reunion. We only had to read one chapter - and to meet these individuals - to know that we would be working on job that would last the generations.
Our team met to assess what needed to be done and to provide an estimate. The designers had some suggestions - resize to an easy to handle 7 x10, paginate so that all chapters begin on the front side of the sheet, crop photos where needed to allow for better margins and text flow, and create a custom cover with fonts that would work well with a gold foil stamp. Our sales team had a few recommendations as well - digitally print on our Canon 1125 so that the photos and half tones print clean, use an acid free archival quality paper that won't yellow with age, cleat sew bind with a environmentally friendly cloth cover and end sheets.....and be sure that we produce a high quality book at a reasonable price.
With everything agreed upon, we then sent out an initial pdf proof to our customer to be sure we were heading in the right direction. This proof was then followed by two additional hard copy proofs, including one completely bound book. This proofing process offered our customers the chance to review everything before printing 100 books.
Well.... the finished books were beautiful and came in ahead of time and on budget. Everyone was thrilled with the results. Our customers are so happy with the books that they want to order more ... and the Alphagraphics Madison team is proud to be part of a project that will be around for quite some time!