It’s been a busy couple of months, and I’m finally getting around to making some posts on the summer’s activities. First up, the release of issue 20.2 of So What! magazine, Metallica’s fan club publication which I art direct and design. This issue’s focus was on Metallica’s own music festival, Orion Music + More. This year’s festival was the second annual, held this time in Detroit.
For me, the major story from this issue wasn’t anything to do with the content, but rather with the production. For the first time in ten-plus year’s we are printing the magazine outside of the Bay Area, as the printer we’ve been using closed their San Francisco plant. Their San Francisco shop was located in an area that will soon see major re-development. I heard that their building was sold for use as apartments. My own studio may be susceptible to the same pressures soon, as planning for the redevelopment of Pier 70 is well underway. That is another story however…if you’re interested you might find information on the status of our studios on the Noonan Building Artists web site.
I was sorry to see the change, as the Color Graphics shop was literally five blocks from my studio, which made printing really convenient. I have a great print rep and they’ve done a great job for me on this project for over a decade. However, the company has plants in other locations, so we moved our job to LA for the time being. This issue was the first one printed in LA, and it was a fairly easy transition to make. We also printed on a web press instead of a sheet-fed, something we’ve only done one time before.
