News!

Tomorrow I being the adventure of representing a new company for book and print production - Imago. Alas I will have to leave my Italian colleagues behind. Like my friend Luciano, who wrote back to me: "What a bad news! Like a storm in a sunny day!" I will miss you, Luciano, and my other Mondadori pals, too.

But the future looks bright, and I can't wait to start blogging and showing pix of all the fabulous and creative products Imago has produced. Stay tuned ....

That's www.imago.co.uk

Going With The Flow

I just returned from a quick trip to Washington, DC and a meeting with one of my favorite clients, The National Geographic Society.

Mondadori has just finished printing a massive, multi-language production of one of the lead titles for National Geographic, The Image Collection, and I had a chance to look over the first samples with Production Manager Nicole. The book looks beautiful, and I especially love the old photos from the Geo archives, of the early explorers.

Alas, times are getting tougher for traditional printers like Mondadori, and I am not sure what projects Mondadori may work on with Nat Geo in the future. Still, I had a great meeting with Phil, the Manufacturing Director, catching up on industry news, the shenanigans of various print sales people we know in common (who shall remain nameless, Charles, ...) and life in general. So many of us in the publishing and printing businesses have wonderful friendships built upon years of working together through the ups and downs of various projects. It is a little melancholy for everyone involved when that work starts to dwindle.

But as my object was to not get too distressed with the turn of events, and to "go with the flow", I took a night off from working on the computer and sending email reports to everyone, and went kayaking on the Potomac, with another Nat Geo buddy, Rachel. It was a lovely evening. So wonderful to be out in the middle of nature, in the middle of a big city like DC!

From The Lands of Fantasy

"In the harsh cold northlands, The Lich King Arthas has set in motion events that could lead to the extinction of all life on Azeroth. With the armies of the undead and the necromantic power of the plague threatening to sweep across the land, only the mightiest heroes can oppose the Lich King's will and end his reign of terror for all time ...."

Yikes!

Another World of Warcraft project, The Wrath of the Lich King, has just wrapped up at Mondadori Verona. This latest oversized volume is a full color atlas of Azeroth and Northrend, vast regions in which World of Warcraft players do battle. Much of the lingo is baffling to the uninitiated. For example I wonder what "if there's no mage around to offer a port and your hearthstone's still got some cooldown ...." might mean??? However, these volumes are clearly aimed at WoW enthusiasts, eager to decipher the locations of dungeons and rare spawning mobs ....

I like to think that these Atlases are an example of how the web and on-line media are adding new opportunities to create projects in the print world. And like every other WoW fan, I look forward to the next World of Warcraft blockbuster!