Western Asiatic Antiquities

The Burrell Collection
and Edinburgh University Press

1990   |  250 × 175mm   |  156pp

Starting Off. I set up in business as a designer in 1990, emboldened by the possibilities of the Apple Mac and what was then called 'desktop publishing'. But not all my early clients were ready for the new digital developments. This book was laid out with paper and glue from galleys of photoset type combined with images reduced to size on a photocopier. My indicative layouts then went to the printer who had to do the same work again, but at artwork standard with aligning type square on the page and without splodges of glue. In a matter months, the new digital technology had swept away this double handling, along with it, it must be said, many jobs in the typesetting and printing industry. For my part, I was delighted to land work from Edinburgh University Press, however they were printed: I am a great admirer of the books that George Mackie designed for them in the 1960s and '70s.