book

Throwback

When I was a teenager I used to record songs from the radio on cassette tapes. I would patiently listen to the radio until a specific song came on, at which point I ran to my stereo and pressed the play and record button simultaneously. A couple of seconds late every time.

Later I’d torrent Japanese pop records on Napster. I learned about bitrates, open ports and file types and figured out which search filters worked best. Though I never knew what file I’d end up with. I modded my Playstation so I could play a region-locked copy of Winning Eleven, a Japanese soccer game. I screwed open the console and replaced the chip, feeling like a true hacker doing something very illegal. If it worked I'd spend the next hours trying to make sense of Japanese in-game menus.

I've come to realise that NoGood is essentially a throwback my teenage years, the late 90's and early 00's. To physical media, floppy disks and game cartridges. To Casio watches and replaceable batteries and Playstations. To messing around with hardware and sometimes breaking it. To the beginnings of the internet when it was new and exciting. And weird.

Paper samples
Paper samples Paper samples

I gave this short introduction to the printers I visited last week. I’m not sure if they understood exactly what I was talking about, but they showed me lots of samples and beautifully designed books all the same. It looks like my initial estimate – €7000 to produce 200 books – was pretty accurate. Some of my suggestions, like using a variety of paper stock and weights, barely move the price. Others, like creating a cardboard sleeve and using Pantones, are relatively expensive to produce and will most likely be scrapped.

Crowdfunding

We're currently at 31 pre-orders, covering about 45% of the production costs. An extra special supporter even bought a set of five books!

Next steps

I started designing the first spreads last week, though I think I'll take a short break over the holidays.

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