And whether the city is decking its halls with boughs of holly or stretching out on sun loungers, Bond has been out there, snapping away.
With a considerable back catalogue of photos, and 50,000 loyal followers on X (Twitter), Bond decided it was high time to publish – and fortunately for his photo-fans, he’s done so just before Christmas.
What was produced?
Bond went straight to Gomer Press in Wales for the first book in a planned trilogy. It needed to be a high-quality product, with careful colour control and substrate choice. The order went in: 1,000 hardcover copies, at 224 full-colour pages each plus cover, measuring 240x300mm.
What did the job entail?
Fortunately for Gomer, and despite being a first-time author, Bond had a clear picture of what he wanted.
From receipt of PDFs, the first step was a wet proof, done as a flat line on the press.
“If it’s not what we expected, we know where we started from,” explained Gareth Acreman, sales estimator at Gomer, and Bond’s liaison.
After proofing, the job went to print. The covers and text were printed on Antalis’ 170 and 200gsm Claro silk, respectively, both going through Gomer’s Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 106 LE-UV B1 four-colour perfector.
Running the pages through a Heidelberg Stahl folder, they were gathered on a Kolbus binding line with three-knife trimmer, and sewn on a Kolbus Aster Pro.
End papers of Wibalin Natural Black and a black marker ribbon were inserted, and the covers mounted on board with a Kolbus DA 260 casemaker, matt laminated and embellished with high-build spot UV.
What challenges were overcome?
A run of 1,000 high-quality photobooks is bread-and-butter stuff to Gomer – the only potential challenge for the firm was Bond’s unfamiliarity with the printing process.
Lucky for Bond, however, was Gomer’s excellent customer service. Whether running a second wet proof for Bond free of charge, because its Heidelberg’s colour curve had just been tweaked, or inviting him to pass the book on press, the team helped smooth a stressful process for the first-time author.
“I didn’t do anything different for Martin than I would with any other customer,” Acreman simply said.
What was the feedback?
However normal this high standard of service might be for Gomer, it was still mightily appreciated by Bond.
He said: “This is my first time venturing into publishing and printing. It can be a very bewildering place to enter, but it’s really testimony to Gomer that they held my hand along the way and were completely brilliant.
“Spending thousands of pounds of my own money at one press of a button that can’t be un-pressed is quite a daunting prospect. But Gomer made me feel as comfortable as one could be to give that instruction.”
