One morning a few weeks ago i wrote about the previous evening in the form of a whimsical play. Christine was entertained, and, from the following conversation, this whimsical Land Mail Art Object project was born.
One of the interesting challenges was in the layout of the booklet or chapbook. I did not find basic templates available on the web. I spent some time figuring out how to formulate the final pagination of the booklet given a total number of sheets of paper used, N, for a particular sheet of paper, m.
| Left half | Right half | |
| Odd side | 2N+2(N-m)+2 | 2m-1 |
| Even side | 2m | P 2N+2(N-m)+1 |
I would have done my layout in Word, because text boxes can be connected so that the text will flow from one to the next. Unfortunately, i also wanted text running at right angles to the dominant flow, and i best know how to do that in the NeoOffice (OpenOffice) Draw program. I don’t know how useful this would be to others, but here’s a template that you may use freely and adapt as needed: ChapbookLayout.odg
I looked into the prices of having this produced at FedEx Kinkos and have concluded that even with the cost of a long arm stapler, good cover paper, and another color ink cartridge, i’d be better off printing and binding them myself.
The first ten are bound and ready to post, and i’ll be producing more as i post them in the mail. My plan is to produce no more than forty. [I will update this as i complete the production.]
Colophon for LMAO-2010-AnEvening
Playbill and Showbill are “magazines” distributed at theater productions in the US. The distinctive yellow banner in all caps serif font at the top seemed like a strong visual cue to the content. The font used in this piece is Arno Pro Bold Display and Arno Pro Caption.
The cover image is “Harmony” of the 2001 duet mask pair “Humboldt” and “Harmony” by Ryl Mandus of Angel-Mask.com.
“Grey Cat Productions” is often rendered in Haettenschweiler. The san serif display font is Placard Condensed. The script font is Edwardian Script ITC while the ornament is from Type Embellishments One. Body text is Adobe Garamond Pro.
There were various printings.
Covers were printed with an HP Photosmart C3100 on Epson Premium Presentation Paper. The interior pages were printed with an HP LaserJet 5 on HP Office Recycled Paper. The first ten were printed at “best,” producing overly contrasted cast photos. The next eight were printed at “regular” with a better contrast but a visible grain.
Advertisements are collages from web photos and logos, without permission. Brands for 9Lives, Shultz Expert Insect Spray, Adobe Animal Hospital, and The advertisement for Grey-Cat.com uses a Wordle background.
Tags: LMAO2010-AnEvening
Great post, have you seen some of the latest printers though? Would love to get my hands on the HP scitex printers!