It's finally here 📖
almost 4 years ago – Tue, Apr 26, 2022 at 10:37:15 PM

Good news everyone 👋

Today was a gloriously sunny day in Denmark and we got 4 pallets of books delivered to our tiny warehouse.  Such an exciting moment— we finally have the book in our hands!

Looking over digital files or inspecting printed sheets doesn't compare to having the real thing in front of you. Feeling the weight in your hand and rifling through crisp newly printed and bound pages. The holographic cover looks amazing and the book is sturdy, weighing in at just under 1kg. We now have 3000 books in the warehouse and we'll start shipping right away.

We've got a bunch of things to do now but just wanted to give you the great news as fast as possible. We're so excited!

If you still have coworkers, friends or family that haven't gotten their order in yet, you can direct them to appiconbook.com. We'll sell the first editions for as long as we have stock.

I'll return with some more info once shipping is underway. Thank you for helping us make this into a real thing ❤️

Michael

RGB to CMYK translation 🎨
almost 4 years ago – Sat, Apr 23, 2022 at 04:12:27 AM

Hi everyone 👋

So our bookbinder has been hit by an outbreak of COVID. With most of their employees down, they’re now expecting to deliver our 3000 books next week 😓

Setbacks and delays like these suck, but they’re an almost unavoidable part of putting together a physical thing with lots of practical dependancies. We planned for them and even though there’s been a few these past months, we’re still technically on track to start shipping in April (granted that we do get the books next week). Would I have wished we already had the books and was packing them up right now? Absolutely. Realistically most backers will receive their books throughout May.

We’re ready to receive the books in our little warehouse space that we have rented. We’ll pack and ship everything from here. Right now it’s just waiting for the books and thousands of foldable cardboard book packages. As soon as we get them, I’ll update you and we’ll start shipping.

I get that this isn’t the most exciting update, so I wanted to take a moment to appreciate something that turned out great.

RGB to CMYK

I’m so happy with the RGB to CMYK translation that we’ve managed to pull off for the book.

One big worry I had from the very beginning was how icons, designed for screens, would look printed on paper. Taking something that’s designed in RGB with pixels and putting it onto a page with ink is bound to look very different.

The goal with the book has always been to (as faithfully as possible) reproduce the work we know and love from our devices.

I’m relieved to report that the icons look amazing in the final sheets. Negligible differences in color. Vibrant & clear. Feast your eyes on these example prints 👇😍

Make no mistake, this result took a lot of work. Offset printing color profiles, test prints and iterations from Anders & the talented folks at Narayana Press. Several attempts where made before we dialled in the right translation.

All that work paid off and I’m proud that the book will feature (as close as humanly possible) reproductions of the art from our phones. I’ll hopefully be back with a new update soon as everything moves into position for the final stretch of fulfilment.

If you want something to look at before then, I posted my yearly recap video where I also talk a bit about the App Icon Book Kickstarter campaign.

Have a great weekend. 

Michael

Production has started 🖨️
almost 4 years ago – Tue, Apr 12, 2022 at 01:09:50 AM

Hi everyone 👋

I have been looking forward to this for a very long time. The 170g heavyweight coated silk paper we ordered last month was fed into the large modern machinery (LED KBA RA106-8SW4 SPC) of Naryana Press in Jutland, Denmark. Here printing began of the almost 500.000 pages we need for the initial 3000-book first-edition run. Anders was on the floor to capture some footage. Here's some video from that momentous day.

From Digital to Print

As a digital designer I find the entire process fascinating. A lot of the work that we screen designers do lack the mechanical and production aspects of putting together a book— so I want to make sure I share how everything is coming together.

The digital files are fed into what is called a CPT (Computer To Print). This is a machine that separate the colors in the file into 4 plates: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key (CMYK). The plates are then loaded into the printing press and each color is put on top of each other to gradually combine the 4 colors (5 if you count the color of the paper) into the final image.

This printing press is an impressive machine. It's a mostly autonomous process with the ink automatically being distributed on the printing rolls. When all the colors have been applied to the page, a measurement and a picture is taken. Based on the measurement and the picture, the press then automatically adjusts the angle of the plate as well as the amount of ink applied. Ensuring a perfect print on every sheet. The finished sheet now passes through a strong UV light to cure the ink. Even though it sounds like the human element is nowhere to be found, there is still a person present who pulls out a sheet of finished paper for inspection to ensure that the job is done correctly.

This printing press can print 8 pages at the same time and on both sides of the paper at about 10.000 sheets of paper per hour. Without stops, the roughly half a million pages for our 3000 books could theoretically be printed in a matter of hours. The plates need to be changed every hour or so and while we were there the press had to be rebooted once (software is software, I guess).

Once the sheets are printed and inspected, they're sent off to the bookbinder to be cut and bound. The bookbinder also has the special cover with the holographic diffraction sliver embos and will be assembling the book, complete with textile binding, headbanding, and separate endpaper. Here we had to choose things like the right endbands for the book.

What happens next?

I'm a little careful with sharing exact dates, as I've seen these change quite a few times. But the printer expect to have the books back from the binder some time next week (this week is easter vacation in Denmark). Two books will then be taken from the first edition print run and sent to the Royal Danish Library (as is customary with every book printed in Denmark). Then they'll package everything on pallets and ship it off to us. We have prepared a small warehouse space for the next phase of logistics. If the dates hold we still expect to start shipping in April, but realistically most backers will probably receive their books in May. I'll share some more details about shipping when we have the books in our possession.

Last survey hold-outs

93% of backers have completed their surveys and we have locked orders and charged cards for any additional books added through BackerKit. If you're part of the small group of people who haven't completed their survey yet, we urge you to do it as soon as possible. Don't hesitate to reach out if there's anything we can do to help.

Still accepting pre-orders as long as stock lasts

We extended the first print run to 3000 books and are going to sell the remaining stock as long as we have them. That means that if you have a friend who missed out on the campaign, they should still be able to order the book through appiconbook.com (until we sell out of books). We anticipate some more interest once your books starts to arrive and we wanted to make sure that we have stock for when that happens.

I'll return with an update once we have the books in our warehouse. It's all finally coming together!

I hope you have a great week.

Michael

Surveys have gone out 📥
about 4 years ago – Tue, Mar 15, 2022 at 06:13:14 AM

Hi everyone 👋

I just clicked the big 'Send Surveys' button in BackerKit and you should all be receiving an email about it. Filling out the survey is important because it collects your shipping information. You need to complete the survey before I can send you your books.

Add-ons

During the survey you'll also be able to add additional books to your pledge. These add-ons will all be part of the first edition print production and go out with your original pledge. Additional books have discounted shipping (since you've already paid for base-shipping). This is a great way for you to grab another book for your workplace or as a unique gift.

Lost survey

If you can't find your survey email, please check your spam folder. If you loose your email or later want to make changes, you should be able to access your survey at appiconbook.backerkit.com. You're obviously also welcome to reach out to me here on Kickstarter and I'll do my best to help. Filling out the survey fairly quickly helps us collect better shipping estimates. 🙏

Sending out surveys is anxious work. Imagine trying to merge 1450+ customer's data across multiple pledge levels and add-ons. One little error can cause a lot of work for a lot of people, so I've been fretting over the complicated BackerKit interface these past few days— making sure the process is streamlined and sending smoke tests to catch any mistakes. I hope you're able to fill out your survey without issues.

I'll return with a more detailed update on the book, but today is all about them surveys.

Have a great day.

Michael

Last chance to get your icons in the book ⚠️
about 4 years ago – Thu, Feb 10, 2022 at 11:28:54 PM

Ok, I have *one* last spread to fill.

These latest page additions have landed us on an uneven number of spreads. That means I need to fill two more pages with icons! Hooray! So I'm opening up for any last minute icon submissions. This is your chance to get any work in here that you might not previously have submitted— or an excuse to bug your favourite designer or developer about them submitting their art 😂

Submit your artwork

Go to 👉 appiconbook.com/submit-artwork to submit your art.

Preferably full square (non cropped) png exports in high resolution. Dropbox link or similar if you are submitting multiple icons. Understandable if you only have 1024x1024px but extra points for 2048x2048px.

It's a bit of a puzzle to get these last spots filled in and I expect we'll have to make some tough editorial decisions— but that shouldn't keep anyone from submitting.

I'll keep submissions open till the end of the week. ✌️

— Michael