Kristin Mack Alnaes: Engrossed by the book fair

Being a packaging publisher, Weldon Owen's main objective is to develop and produce books. For that reason, the book fairs in Bologna, Frankfurt and London are of crucial importance. The next one coming up is in Frankfurt, 14-18th of October. New printed books are being launched, and innovative titles are being proposed. A lot of energy goes into developing prototypes that will be used to attract clients worldwide who might want to publish actual books from those prototypes. And so my first month at the office has mainly consisted of finishing prototypes and books that are being launched.  
 
For the company as whole, it has been a 24-hour production process, involving in-house staff in Sydney working with contractors and freelancers overseas. Skype video calling is a true blessing — not only for me keeping in touch with my family 9 hours (soon to be 10) behind me, but also for the working progress. After witnessing the stress producing 96 books in a program targeting children, and at the same time producing leaflets with information about new books, while simultaneously developing new concepts, reading proofs in between, and all at once having the overview — I'm impressed by my new fellow colleagues. My first adaptation to working life at Weldon Owen is getting used to the constant swapping between products that I am working on. I am used to relating to one newspaper, one magazine, one title — and consequently one concept etc, but here I could be working on 4-5 different products during a day.
 
Even though several concepts are being proposed, they all have one feature in common. In times when the www, new interactive platforms and the range of visual stimuli are escalating, WO has found its way of standing out to meet the expectations of all its readers. Flipping through the books, there are very few pages I have seen without a spectacular image — photo or illustration. They feature a bold mix of design elements long favoured by especially young readers: cross-sections, cutaways, paper engineering such as pop-ups and gatefolds; as well as a mix of design styles and graphic representations of reality. I suppose as a representative from a monthly magazines in Norway I am quite envious all the possibilities we cannot afford as our circulation is smaller in a more limited Norwegian speaking market.
 
Bearing the deadlines for Frankfurt in mind, we do have time to enjoy ourselves. The humour hits a good level in the office. One magical moment this week was when the crocodile egg from the post office entered our working space. We put it in water and have eagerly been watching the hatching of the crocodile. It is amazing; the whole birth of a crocodile is all happening within 48 hours of being in water. And they come in four different colours. I just realized we could start a crocodile breeding program. Any name suggestions?