To mark the retirement of its outgoing CEO, AstraZeneca asked us to deliver a book design and printing to be presented at a high profile leaving ceremony.

Challenge

We were asked to produce a prestigious book design to mark the momentous occasion, both in the history of the outgoing CEO and of the company as a whole. Quality was particularly important with this project having just one week to receive and collate over 200 scanned emails, photos and personal notes full of memories and good wishes, and turn them into a book design worthy of such a milestone.

Solution

Subtlety and memorability was the key with the book design and printing – a soft tonal palette of warm greys gives the book a very relaxing feel.

Each page features one or two scanned emails set against a soft grey background, with a gentle drop shadow to lift them off the page. Stretching to 172 pages in all, we felt it was important that the book design didn’t appear too crowded or busy, giving each message its own personal space to match its sentiment.

Great book design and printing is about more than just the look, it’s also about how it feels when readers leaf through the pages, so to enhance the elegant feel of the book and give it a memorable tactile quality we printed the internal pages on a super white uncoated cartridge style paper.

Teaming up with a specialist book binders to create the finished hand crafted piece, the resulting book design and printing exudes quality.

The book was hand delivered the day before the ceremony to ensure it arrived in pristine condition.

The format was so well received that our client commissioned another one to mark a significant milestone a few years later.