380x289mm Booklets
Full colour print throughout
60pp Self Cover
onto 100gsm 100% Recycled Uncoated
Staple Bound
For a show-stopping artist catalogue, this is a winning format: an oversized, staple bound booklet that opens out into enormous spreads packed with artwork and narrative. It’s made to live alongside an exhibition—easy to pick up, properly readable, and strong enough to take away.
Strange Heart Beating is a bold, gallery-ready show catalogue aimed at fans of Aboriginal art and London art spaces. The design makes the most of the oversized page size, switching between full-bleed image moments and calmer, text-led pages that introduce the artist, the work, and the thinking behind it.
If you’re planning something similar, our artist catalogue printing service is built for exhibition deadlines and colour-critical artwork. You can also start with the Printed Project Builder to map out format, page count and paper in minutes.
This catalogue was produced as an oversized booklet, printed full colour throughout, with a self cover and staple binding. That combination keeps it lightweight and quick to handle—more like a newspaper-style exhibition piece than a heavyweight perfect bound book.
The uncoated recycled paper is doing a lot of the heavy lifting here. It pulls out painterly detail without adding glare, and the tactile finish helps the printed work feel closer to the original pieces—especially across big image spreads.
The pacing is spot on: full-bleed artwork for impact, then pages of written content that give the exhibition its voice. Add in smaller “in situ” shots of work on the wall, and you get a catalogue that feels like a guided walk through the show, not just a stack of reproductions.
We’re also big fans of the geometry of the page layouts. Strong grids, confident margins, and clear typography make the catalogue feel curated and intentional—especially important at this oversized scale, where “too much” can creep in quickly.
The files came over via WeTransfer, followed by a tight, exhibition-led schedule.
Once the proof was checked and approved (“no necessary amendments”), we moved straight into production to stay on track for the requested delivery date.
Projects like this live or die on two things: print clarity and calm logistics. Our team guided the proofing stage, set clear expectations on how to check the PDF, and kept the schedule moving so the catalogues were ready when the exhibition needed them.
If you’re putting together an exhibition catalogue, you’ll probably find these handy too: our print journey overview, the file set-up guide, and our wire stitching (staple binding) set-up guide.
1) Go oversized when the work needs space. Big spreads change the viewer’s relationship with the artwork—especially when you’re mixing text, wall shots, and reproductions.
2) Use uncoated stock when texture matters. If you want the page to feel closer to the artwork (and you’re not chasing a glossy “poster” look), uncoated is often the right call.
3) Staple binding can be a creative choice. It brings a lightweight, pick-up-and-read energy that suits exhibitions—less “coffee table book”, more “take this home and live with it”.
4) Let the grid do the work. Strong geometry in the layout keeps an image-heavy catalogue feeling calm and curated, even when the content is dense.
