A Better Tomorrow Book
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- Horp0
Mono, a lot of effort was put into getting a real publisher behind it. Just about every graphic design related publisher was approached and a few significant ones agreed to publish it. I forget what the deal was but it was something along the lines of "Sure, we'll publish it, it you pay for it to be published".
In the end what killed this project completely was over-ambition coupled with a total lack of any purpose. I don't mean the bolt-on purpose of raising money for the Patrick O'Brien Foundation, I mean it lacked a functional purpose as a book.
It was not about identity, or layout, or contemporary graphic design, or typography, or print, or... or anything... it was just a catalogue of random stuff, contributed by random people, with no core theme to sit upon. (10% of the work submitted was of a standard so embarrasingly low it would have dragged the entire project down anyway. Most was of an incredibly high standard).
When the project very first began, it was a very humble thing, and if it had remained a humble thing, it probably would have made it into reality, albeit in a humble way. Initially, it was just going to be a book of logos and typographic monograms, printed single colour, designed by QBN members, privately printed, and re-sold back to us in order to cover the production and distribution costs. Just a small book, simply printed, for our own enjoyment.
That was back in the days when this place had a strong community of regulars though. I think that pool has depleted somewhat and I'm not sure the camaraderie exists to underpin a book project now.
- Sorry if this makes little sense, I cut the 4000 word middle bit out at the last minute.Horp
- i_monk0
We're struggling to get Typeface 2012 going and you want to try and fail at another book? (How many is that now? 5?) A pox on your house!
- monospaced0
Horp, I remember the efforts and if you remember, I was on the sidelines during the process. I do recall the issues with the publishers as well and them wanting to edit it to their desires.
To get back on track, though, I think this place still has a strong community of regulars and a whole slew of new ones that are equally if not more impressive. Would you advocate we move forward with self-publishing, or are you of the mindset that this would be better served in the traditional manner?
- Horp0
Personally, I'm not on QBN anywhere near enough to either qualify or want to be involved in it again, and frankly I found myself uninvolved in it the first time round after being at odds with the ambitious direction it took.
I think though, personally, that trying to produce a hard back coffee table edition is way too ambitious. It would be better as a more casual item, which can carry a more casual purpose and be freer, looser in its content and approach.
Really, who gives a fuck any more about QBN? I don't mean that in a bad way that much, but at the time of the book, we were all going to put our log-in names, and our length of time here, and our post counts, and pages of 'our latest posts' and shit like that... why? Who would give a fuck... who would give a fuck about it now even more so? QBN used to be more of an industry go-to place. Its not anymore. There isn't really a go-to place any more, the world has changed. Nobody is going to buy "the QBN book" because really very few people in the industry identify with this place now. It would be like buying the Myspace book.
It sounds like I'm just being negative about QBN here, but I'm not, I'm saying the world has changed and QBN just doesn't carry that kind of gravity any more to the wider creative community, so there's no point in trying to create a self-important tome to represent the talent here.
The talent here is a mixed bag in terms of quality, interests, and technique. Its a casual and informal place. Represent those things in a publication and you'd be golden.
Magazine format would even be better than a pompous book format. That way the problems of publishing go away too. There's a hundred places you can go to get a magazine published.
And you can sell advertising space in it to cover the costs.
Adobe inside front and HTC on the back cover. Job paid for.
- Pompous ego driven designers. No one cares about you or what you do. GFY.severian
- digdre0
we never published it because we made an NTC book instead. It got very popular and we are on our 3rd annual edition now.
- waterhouse0
^
Look to http://www.amazon.com/Content-Re… as an example? But issued/updated annually, biannually?
- hallelujah0
how can a book assembled on the fly by random strangers with no unifying theme other than a "good cause" be any good?
- because the work in it is goodmonospaced
- work devoid of contexthallelujah
- Design books need a theme that is interesting/ marketable to the reader, don't they?ukit2
- Otherwise self-publishing makes the most senseukit2
- nylop0
monopaced, I remember the efforts you remember Horp remembering.
- who's monopaced?monospaced
- I knew you wouldn't forget Nylop.Horp
- Horp0
God, I feel suddenly anxious.
- hallelujah0
I'm bathing in warm piss
- bumdrizzle0
If you look at the list of people that made it past the first edit, even then they were posting rarely. I doubt a single person from that list has posted here in the last 3 years. What Horp was saying, kindly, is that this place is now a vaccume of talent and if we couldn't get the thing published with Joshua Davis, Daren Firth, Forcetwelve, Nuearmy, No Pattern (yes, i know), and Rand, fuck knows how you lot think you are going to do it with Reddit memes and chick of the day.
