Opened out on our desk, The Elephant Times barely fits inside the camera lens. Each page measures 380 x 289mm, the paper is a whisper of 60gsm uncoated, and every mark on it is black ink. It was made to announce The Elephant, the debut mixtape from London singer, rapper and producer Ledbyher, and it is one of the sharpest bits of music industry self promotion we have printed.
The size was the idea. The size was also the problem. A sheet that big has to run on a larger press, which costs more to make ready before a single copy is printed, and the budget had a ceiling. Then there was the clock. The papers had to be in London by Saturday, and the artwork reached us just after midnight on Wednesday.
Business Pages: What the Big Sheet Costs
Vincent, the designer who brought us the job, phoned first and then sent his files with a fallback in mind: if the custom size took too long, the same layout could sit centred on a standard tabloid. By breakfast we had answered with two priced routes. One was the full 380 x 289mm paper. The other was an A4 version, much kinder on the budget because it runs on a smaller machine.
He asked whether a standard tabloid would come cheaper, so we showed him where the money sits: the dimensions push the job onto the bigger press, so trimming the quantity barely moves the price. To reach a lower figure he would need A4, or a custom size inside A4 that keeps the proportions of his design. He then asked if the A4 could run on the same 60gsm, and we requoted it like for like, so he was weighing size and nothing else.
With both numbers in front of him, Vincent kept the big format. If your own launch paper hits the same wall, borrow our suggestion: a custom size within A4, scaled to your existing proportions, keeps the layout intact and lets you print on the smaller press. This chart of standard sheet dimensions is handy when you are sketching where that size might land.
Paper Round: Holding Out for 60gsm
On one point Vincent never wavered. His first reply said it plainly: “Defo want to go with the 60gsm uncoated!” We agreed. A newspaper should flop over your wrist and crackle as you turn it, and anything heavier begins to behave like a brochure.
Stock this thin is hard to come by, and it only comes in one shade of white. That softer tone does the photography a favour. Printed in black alone, portraits from the album shoot sink into warm greys instead of glaring off a bright office sheet, and the solid headline capitals look properly inky. Hold a page up to the window and the reverse ghosts through faintly, as it does on the paper that lands on your doormat.
Planning something similar? Edit every photograph for greyscale before it goes anywhere near your layout. Pictures that rely on colour turn muddy on newsprint, while pictures made for black ink look right at home there.
Arts Section: Type Sized for a Big Sheet
Our first reply to the artwork opened with “Ah this is class! The typography is so good!” We have not changed our minds. A gothic blackletter masthead carries a tiny elephant between its words, with “Vol One” ears either side and a “Weekend Edition” dateline. The splash shouts LEDBYHER OUT NOW in heavy capitals while her name loops across it in hand drawn script. Beneath SCAN HERE, a QR code sends fans straight to the mixtape. According to Clash, fans at her Boiler Room preview set were handed the paper with their merch.
Inside, the paper keeps a straight face. An interview runs in tight typewriter columns next to a crossword and a mock story headlined “TUBE STATION VANDALISED”, illustrated with a graffiti tagged Elephant & Castle roundel. Engraved telephones, thistles and an all-seeing eye sit between the columns like old printer’s ornaments. One spread sets a Side A and Side B tracklist and a pen and ink elephant against a full bleed photograph from the album shoot. Another, headed SO GOOD SO FAR, charts her releases in numbered snapshots, and the back page rolls “HEAVY AS THE WEATHER IN MY OLD DAYS” across a bank of engraved clouds.
The type is pitched perfectly for the sheet, with condensed capitals up top and a monospaced face for the long reads. Our notes on mastheads, columns and newspaper styling dig into that balance.
Late Edition: Midnight Files, Friday Delivery
Once the decision was made, the job ran at newsroom speed. Vincent confirmed the order mid-morning, our PDF proof went over by WeTransfer, and inside twenty minutes of ordering he had approved it and paid. Shortly afterwards this arrived:
“Amazing thanks so much Mike. Excited to see these in person!”
Vincent, designer
The finished papers left us on Thursday. On Friday morning we passed on the courier’s one hour delivery window, and the bundle reached him that afternoon, a clear day before his Saturday deadline. We have since sent a copy to another client who wanted to judge real newsprint for themselves.
Small Ads: Notes for Your Own Launch Paper
A promo newspaper gives fans something to read on the way home and a reason to keep it afterwards, which a flyer rarely manages. Decide early whether size is part of your concept; if it is, budget for the bigger press, and if it is not, a custom size inside A4 keeps the concept alive for less. Keep the stock thin and the ink black, and put the link to the music on the front page where nobody can miss it. Our guide to setting up newspaper artwork for press covers the layout side, and our team will gladly price a paper at whatever size your idea needs.
PaperbacksA5, 44 pages, perfect bound£246for 100
Product cataloguesA5, 28 pages, stapled£166for 100