A5 Books
4pp Cover onto 300gsm GF Smith Gmund #92 (supplied in)
White foil back cover and spine
210pp Text onto 120gsm Munken Kristall Smooth True White (supplied in)
Inner pages printed full colour throughout
Trimmed, collated and Perfect bound.
"We have received them — they are beautiful! Thank you so very much for being able to deliver them as soon as you have!"
— Jyotsni, Co-President, ARCSOC, University of Cambridge Architecture Society
ARCSOC (the University of Cambridge Architecture Society) needed a graduate show catalogue that could do a lot of jobs at once: document the year, represent a huge cohort of student work, and feel confident in people’s hands at the exhibition.
The result is a compact A5 book that still reads as substantial. At 210 pages, it has real presence — the kind of catalogue you keep, not just flick through once.
We printed the ARCSOC Graduate Show Books as A5, perfect bound paperbacks:
That GF Smith red is a glorious choice — bright, dynamic, and confident from the off. It doesn’t need anything flashy on top; the simple black cover type does all the work. Better still, the 300gsm cover has a lovely snap, so the book feels rigid and “proper” without stepping into hardback territory.
If you’re weighing up formats for a similar project, our binding options overview and perfect binding set-up guide are a good starting point.
This catalogue is a great example of restraint paying off. The cover is basically colour + type — and because the paper colour is doing the shouting, the typography can stay calm.
Inside, the layout works hard. With hundreds of pages and a lot of student projects to include, the grid and font sizing have been handled sensibly, so the pages don’t feel cramped. Where red type appears in the interior, it jumps off the page and helps steer the eye.
There’s also a strong rhythm to the content: clean white space, then full-bleed moments, then image-led spreads. That pacing matters in a 210-page flip-through — it keeps the book moving.
ARCSOC were balancing budget, sponsorship, and a non-negotiable exhibition deadline. Early on, we talked through options like special divider stocks and cover finishes, then revised the spec as the project evolved.
When budgets tightened, we reshaped the plan without losing the feel of the book. We also shared practical file advice, including a reminder to supply pages as single pages in reading order (rather than spreads), and a heads-up about how much of a double-page image disappears into the spine.
They’d also spotted slight colour misalignment in a previous year’s run. We acknowledged it, checked the artwork carefully, and flagged anything likely to cause alignment headaches before going to press.
Our job here was equal parts print production and calm project management: keeping the spec realistic, keeping files clean, and keeping momentum when the clock was ticking.
We also worked through the practicalities of university purchasing — invoices, supplier set-up, and purchase orders — so production could start in the right way.
When timing got tight, we found a workable alternative that protected the deadline. The books landed, and the team came back to tell us they were “beautiful” and that they’d had “many compliments”. That’s exactly what a degree show catalogue should do: represent the work well, and make the whole cohort look the part.
If you’re planning something similar, you can explore our portfolio printing and artist catalogue printing pages, or start from the Printed Project Builder to map out your own spec.
