Process 028 ☼ Notice Cover Reveal + Date
Giveaway: Limited Edition "Notice" Postage Stamps
Dear friends,
In this week’s letter: a bunch of exciting updates about my upcoming photo book “Notice”, including the unveiling of the book cover and the pre-order date.
For this week’s giveaway we have something unique: a sheet of “Notice” postage stamps. That’s right, actual legitimate postage stamps you can use to send mail.
But first, let’s dive into all these photo book updates.
Test Prints Received
The last two weeks have been an intensive sprint to finish all things “Notice” and get ready to launch the pre-order. We selected the best materials for the endpapers, finalized our cloth choice, set up the online shop, figured out worldwide shipping, and so much more. Hundreds of small decisions that all add up to a limited edition high quality photo book that I hope will find a home on your coffee table or book shelf.
One of the highlights of these past few weeks was receiving more test prints from our lithographer. This part of the process is so delicate and important, and also a bit mysterious. It’s all about making sure the book looks exactly as intended, from color nuances to the depth of the blacks, once it goes from film and screen to paper.
Above are three test print sheets of some of the images from the book. Each sheet differs slightly in contrast and saturation and together with our lithographer Sebastiaan we’ve been tweaking and adjusting our print files so that the ink interacts with our paper of choice perfectly. It’s been a super interesting process.
Unveiling The Notice Book Cover
This is a big moment for me, to finally get to share the cover to “Notice”, beautifully designed by Dan Rubin. Almost a year to the day that I took my first daily photo walk in Vancouver, long before I knew it would lead to 800 miles of walking and 35,000 images shot, let alone my first official photo book.
Allow me to nerd out over some of the details of the cover. First, it’s a clothbound hardcover made to last generations. It’s super sturdy but also very pleasant to the touch. We went through so many cloth samples to find the right one and we’re super happy with our final choice. We want you to love holding the book in your hands as much as you love looking at the photos. Presentation, presentation, presentation.
Our choice of color was informed by a desire to echo the exact yellow of the daisies that I encountered on my photo walks. There will also be a special edition version of “Notice”, in a very small run, which have a different color, namely an orangy red that echoes the poppies that grew side by side with the daisies. More on that soon.
The book title and my name are debossed, which means that the letters are pressed into the cover. When you run your fingers across you’ll feel the depth and texture of the letters. My name has a coat of black ink while the title “Notice” is blind debossed, meaning it’s pressed into the cover without using additional ink, as a subtle visual pun. Get it? You won’t notice “Notice” unless you’re paying close attention.
Pre-Order Launch Date
At this point I can hear your voices angelically exclaiming: “Ermahgerd stop talking about these nerdy details and just tell us when and where we can pre-order this book?!” Thankfully we finally have an answer:
The “Notice” pre-order campaign launches Tuesday April 6th, at 10am EST.
Process subscribers will receive a link to the pre-order on the day of the launch.
The book will be published by a new imprint called New Style, which I co-founded with Dan Rubin. Think of New Style as an indie music label, but for photography. Deeply personal, quality obsessed, and forging a new path. More on that soon.
How You Can Help
Aside from spreading the word about “Notice” once the pre-order launches, there is another way to help. If you have a suggestion or connection to a media outlet, whether it’s a podcast, Youtube channel, newspaper, blog, magazine, IG feature account, etc. that you think could be interested in covering the release of “Notice”, let me know.
Just drop me a line at hello@wesley.co with the subject line “Notice Press”, a link to the press outlet plus what your connection is and I will get back to you right away. We’re a tiny team of two so any help getting the word out is very much appreciated.
That’s it for this week. Excited to hear what y’all think of the cover. Process will now go back to the normal weekly schedule so I’ll see you here next Sunday.
Keep shooting and take good care of yourselves and others.
Wesley
PS I recently had a great conversation with the lovely Chris and Tim of the Analog Talk podcast which you can listen to here. We talked about my daily photo walks, how “Notice” came about, my love for photo books, how I got into photography, and more.
Process Giveaway!
After 27 issues of film, photo book, and camera giveaways this is the first ever Process giveaway where the prize is a thing I made myself: an extremely limited edition sheet of “Notice” postage stamps. These are official Dutch postal stamps and can be used to send actual mail when sending from the Netherlands. I will number and sign the sheet.
This is what they look like in real life (the middle one, with the “Notice” cover flamengo):
To enter email me at hello@wesley.co (please don’t reply to this note but send a separate email) before 11pm EST on April 1st and answer the following question:
If you could send a thank you postcard to a living photographer, who would you pick and what would you thank her (or him) for? (2-4 sentence max)
My answer: Mark Seliger, who I will send a postcard to thank him for his endlessly inspiring portraiture and how generous he’s been in giving me helpful feedback on my work.
One winner will be randomly drawn and notified. This giveaway is for Process subscribers only. Subscribe by clicking the button below:
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Process is a weekly letter from Wesley Verhoeve.
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