What did the job entail?

The first issue of the magazine contained pieces on silent film soundtracks, Jamie’s love of shoes and ‘the curious history of seafaring’. The issue also included an exclusive rollfold sheet music throw-out featuring a transcription of previously unavailable song ‘Don’t wait to love’. The 64-plus-4pp magazine was curated by Jamie Cullum and assembled by Simon Tapscott and graphic designer Kate Monument, who also worked on Cullum’s first album Heard It All Before.

How was the job produced?

The issue was printed by Shropshire-based Precision Colour Printing (PCP), which produced 3,100 copies using a Mitsubishi 3H/6+c for the cover and a 10-unit Heidelberg SM 102 B1 perfector for the text. The 8pp music sheet was folded to 260x200mm portrait and aligned to the top of the inside back cover of the 270x210mm magazine. The cover was printed on 350gsm Rives Linear Bright White, while the text was printed on 110gsm Edixion offset with a 16pp coloured section on Coloraction Pale Salmon (Savana); the music sheet throw-out was printed on 140gsm Edixion offset. The magazine was printed 4/4 using standard process offset inks plus neon yellow special (PMS 809U); the 16pp coloured paper section was printed black only. Pages were sealed throughout and a circular sticker was applied to the outside cover. 

What challenges were overcome?

According to PCP, the main challenge in producing the magazine was aligning the 8pp sheet music throw-out to make sure it fell short of the binding edge as well as the trimmed edge, and so the folds fell accurately between the song sheets.

What was the feedback?

“The magazine isn’t about me necessarily, but about things that I’m interested in,” said a humble Cullum. “I’m really interested in journalism and writing, and I know so many writers, so I thought I could have a go and get some friends involved. Not many people know that I did English literature and typography, so I got to indulge my passion for fonts and design.”