Book for Self-promotion by Manic Design

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CLIENT

Manic is an award-winning creative agency with a portfolio of work that ranges from websites and online campaigns to advertising and branding.

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BRIEF

After ten years in the business we thought it would be nice to compile a “Greatest Hits of sorts, to mark a decade of being manic." We thought that it was a good time to take stock of what we’ve done and to thank the people that we’ve met along the way; we also wanted a handsome leave-behind for when we meet potential clients.

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APPROACH

This book took forever—something like two years—to write, design, and produce. Whenever a paid project came along, it got shelved. Whenever we were unsatisfied with the design, it got stalled. The lesson here is that a self-promotional piece is highly personal. This wasn’t obvious to us, and we delegated it several times. But it never worked. It was only when we rolled up our sleeves and really got our hands dirty with the writing and design that the book started to come together and to feel “real" and honest.

PRODUCTION LESSONSPrinting on uncoated stock is not for the faint-hearted. We worked with our long-time printer and chose a paper stock that had been proven to perform. The paper merchant had a lot of intensely printed samples and the printer gave us advice on line-screen and ink density. But right off the press, some pages were still slightly muddy and needed adjustment—it was nerve-racking to see the too-dark pages flying off the Heidelberg. Every adjustment must have taken at least 100 sheets of eight-up or more, so a higher print-run makes more sense.