Insider: Printed Pages

We sent out one of the first issues of Printed Pages to Stack subscribers back in 2014. Published by the guys at design website and all-round inspiration geyser It’s Nice That, it’s a compendium of the best work and features on the website from the last six months.

At their launch party a few weeks back, I got the chance to see their neon-embossed cover, and after flipping through to find one of my favourite illustrators, along with a 16-page spread of Oylmpians shaped in clay by Wilfrid Wood, I knew I had get in touch with the editors to find out their inspirations behind this issue. If you order it online now, you’ll also get a bundle of prints, postcards, and stickers!

In the making of this issue we…

Explored: All of that content and carefully edited it down into 240 pages of lovingly designed print.

Listened to: Marcos Valle’s ‘Estrelar’ a lot. It kept us feeling chirpy while putting the issue together.

Were obsessed with: The type-stickers on the back of the Tro-Tro trucks in Charlie Kwai’s Ghana series. We thought they were so good that we ended up re-creating four of the stickers to distribute with online orders of the magazine.

Worked from: Our studio in Haggerston, where we take over a corner of the space with our flat plan and we cover tables and walls with to-scale spreads of the issue to get a feel of how it’s coming together as we design it.

We learned: That Usain Bolt and a Grandma from Staffordshire truly belong together.

Lost sleep over: Worrying about whether the spine width was correct even though I’d checked, checked, checked so many times. We have a few varying paper stocks in the magazine, which feels great when you flick through a copy, but it always causes a few headaches for us when designing the issue.

Were excited about: Andy Rementer and Geoff McFetridge both creating new artworks for the issue. Both are distributed with online orders of the mag and are great additions to the issue.

Were amazed by: Jack Davison’s photographs of graphic designer John Morgan and his family. One of which appears on our cover.

Couldn’t stop laughing at: Tara Booth’s paintings. She takes seemingly mundane subjects and observations and makes them funny. Really funny.

And everyone should buy a copy because: It’s our best yet. We’ve filled it with some incredibly inspiring work and features. We’ve carefully selected paper that feels great to touch. Plus, if you are quick and order online, you’ll receive a free Andy Rementer print, a free Geoff McFetridge screen-print, five postcards and four TroTro stickers too.

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