My 'handmade' copy of Wallpaper* has arrived, yay! In fact it arrived last week while I was away, so have been itching to see it.

Notwithstanding my execrable design, the thing looks absolutely great. Bravo to FE Burman and St Ives Plymouth for producing such a cracking job, and of course to the IPC peeps for having the idea in the first place.

According to the editorial 21,000 personalised covers were produced, and some people ordered multiple copies of their own designs. Thinking about it, if you were a budding graphic designer you'd be nuts and/or asleep not to have seen this as a great opportunity to create something special for your portfolio.  

Printed on FE Burman's HP Indigo 7000, and with the addition of a special scratch resistant matt laminate, the front cover - and outside back cover Rolex ad - look totally in keeping with Wallpaper*'s high-end production values. As such it could cause some people to re-evaluate their stance on the sort of quality digital printing can produce.

UPM was also heavily involved with the project, with no less than eight of its grades featured in the 212pp issue. Congratulations all round to everyone involved in the conception and execution. It's a terrific mag, and a perfect example of the sort of thing that makes physical magazines special and covetable. And what a tremendous thing for the St Ives team to go out with their heads held high after producing such a complex piece for their last issue. Burman's sales director Paul Regan tells me that it was a really extraordinary feeling standing by the binding line down at Plymouth with thousands of magazines coming off it, every one different.

The other thing worth noting in all this is that readers were able to pick from a selection of Rolex ads for the OBC. I already know that IPC is using the additional data it has harvested for things like promo offers on its other mags. And Rolex, theoretically, now has a bunch of information about what thousands of Wallpaper* readers, in various countries, prefer the look of - it will be fascinating to see if some targeted advertising appears from the luxe watchmaker as a result, will keep you posted.