A5 Books
4pp Cover onto 250gsm Uncoated
Matt Lamination to outer
72pp Text onto 120gsm Uncoated
Four colour print throughout
Trimmed, collated and perfect bound
Central Saint Martins (UAL) came back to us for another graduating-year catalogue — this time for MA Design (Ceramics, Furniture, Jewellery). It’s a properly confident piece of print: bold visuals, neat student-page typography, and full-colour chapter blocks that make the whole book easy to navigate at speed.
It’s also a smart, no-nonsense spec. The cover has enough weight to feel like a “real” publication, while the uncoated inside pages keep the flip-through tactile and easy to read — ideal for a degree show catalogue that’s going to be handled by students, tutors, alumni and potential employers.
If you’re planning something similar, start with our degree show catalogue printing page, or jump into the Printed Project Builder to request a print quote.
This publication showcases graduating work across three disciplines — Ceramics, Furniture and Jewellery — with each student getting a clean, consistent page layout. The pacing is strong: you get an attention-grabbing year group opener, then a steady rhythm of portraits, short texts and punchy images that let the work do the talking.
The design leans into clarity. Typography stays tidy on the student pages (exactly what you want when employers are skimming quickly), and the section breaks use solid colour blocks so you always know which discipline you’re in.
The team chose an A5 format — compact, easy to carry around the show, and cost-effective at 1,000 copies without looking “budget”. We printed on uncoated stocks throughout, then added a matt laminate to the cover for durability and a smooth, modern finish.
Perfect binding gives the catalogue a square spine and a professional “bookshop-ready” feel — a small detail that makes a big difference when the book is acting as a calling card.
Need a hand setting files up? Our file set-up knowledge base and perfect binding set-up guide cover the essentials (bleed, exports, covers and spines) in plain English.
The front cover is a strong example of restraint done well — bold title typography, a moody image treatment, and plenty of space so it reads instantly from across a room. It sets the tone before you’ve even opened the book.
Inside, the student pages keep things consistent without feeling repetitive. Portraits and copy sit neatly alongside the work, and the grid gives each project room to breathe. Those full-colour chapter blocks (Ceramics / Furniture / Jewellery) are doing real functional work too: they create clean breaks, and they help the reader re-orient quickly as they flick through.
The brief landed during exam season, so the priority was keeping everything calm and predictable: clear pricing, clear timings, and early checks before the layout got locked in. We talked the team through examples of previous catalogues, then shared practical templates and guidance so they could build the cover correctly from the start.
As finals came together, we helped with the usual last-mile essentials: confirming specs, working to a delivery deadline for the degree show, and flagging a couple of artwork fixes (like making sure the cover and inside PDFs exported with the correct bleed) before we went anywhere near production.
This project is a good example of what “support” looks like in real life. We stayed responsive, checked work-in-progress files, shared set-up templates, and kept the team moving with practical next steps — without turning the process into a jargon-fest.
If you want the same sort of guidance (especially on deadlines and file set-up), our print journey page shows what working with us looks like from first quote to delivery.
