Concept:

This project example was done before inexpensive digital data storage via CD ROMs was practical. At that time all documentation was still provided by analog means; printed on paper.

Sophisticated software is a complicated business which never holds still.

To facilitate the revisions and updates downstream we decided on an approach which cost a bit more on the front end but has saved thousands of dollars in subsequent printings.

3-ring binders rather than perfect (book) binding allow only the changed pages to require reprints rather than entire signatures (8, 16, 32, 64 page groupings used in most press work).

The changed pages can then simply be cropped, drilled and inserted.

Design:

This client needed everything from an visual identity (logo, letterheads, etc.) to the final published behemoth.

The software document itself had to be made so that revised pages would fit right in without distinction, invisible to the end buyer.

Of course all the different elements; disk labels, pages, advertising, section dividers, etc. had to work as one final product.

This is done with the selection of type font 'families', color harmonies, design structure and consistent art direction.

Production:

This wrapping was a combined effort between illustrator, photographer, typographers and lithographer.

The illustration began as a complex photograph of layered glass plates with color type rub-ons applied to simulate the actual screens of the software. The purpose was to emphasize the interactive, 'cellular ' nature of the program.

The large photo print was then airbrushed and reshot, color separated and 'stripped' into the graphic, background design negatives for the lithographic process.

Printing:

Printing was done on 5 separate presses to take advantage of each one's unique capabilities.

The sleeve was run on thick, high reflective index, white, glossy stock through a 5-color sheet fed offset press. Sheet fed presses allow greater color control. To the 4-color process of lithography (cyan, yellow, magenta and black) a 5th 'color' of a clear glossy coating was added to protect and enhance the image of quality.

The 2-color interior pages were run on an enormous web offset press (so called because of the complex network or 'webbing' which the roll of paper must traverse) then folded, cut and drilled for the rings of the binder. Web presses are less costly but require high volume.

The 2-color labels and the 4-color index dividers were both run on another, smaller sheet fed press which could handle both adhesive stock (for the disks) and stiff card stock (for the dividers). They were done with PMS colors (Pantone Matching System) then die cut into shape.

The dividers then went to yet another machine to have their edges laminated for durability.

And Finally, the 3-ring binders, which cannot be printed by the offset litho process, were run on a serigraphy (silk screen) press.

The final package of labeled disk sets, pages and dividers were assembled into the 3-ring binder by hand, wrapped in the sleeve above, shrink wrapped, boxed and inventoried for shipment.