This is the Art Theory and Practice 2026 catalogue from Manchester School of Art, and it is a great example of a degree show catalogue: A5, perfect bound, a thick uncoated cover against smooth silk inside pages, and seventy pages given over almost entirely to the students and their work. Organised, printed and pushed over the line by the year group themselves.
Art Theory and Practice is a small course, which changes the character of a publication like this. There is no big design team to hand the job to, so the catalogue was put together by the students themselves alongside dissertation deadlines and studio work. What comes out of that is a book with a genuine sense of a group in it.
The structure is simple and it works. An introduction from the course leader, then a run of student profiles, a written piece in the middle, a spread of headshots near the back, and acknowledgements. Every graduate gets equal billing and a full spread of their own.
If you are producing one for your own course, our degree show catalogue printing service is built around exactly this: student budgets, immovable show dates and first-time file setup. Our get inspired pages are full of previous year groups to borrow layouts from.
The thick cover against silk insides is a nice combination and one we would recommend for a catalogue like this. A 300gsm uncoated cover feels substantial and a bit crafted, closer to a piece of printed matter than a magazine, and the matt lamination over the top keeps a pale cream sheet from picking up marks in a bag or on a gallery table. Uncoated on the outside, laminated for protection: it is an underrated pairing.
Inside, 130gsm silk does the heavy lifting. This catalogue is full of full-bleed artwork, and a lot of it is demanding: a hot pink screenprint, a dark collage of orange lily petals on near-black, an atmospheric oil painting of timber-framed buildings under a grey sky. Silk holds density in those darks and keeps the saturated colours sharp, which uncoated simply would not have done to the same degree. At 130gsm there is enough weight that the heavier images do not show through the sheet.
Seventy pages plus the cover gives a 4mm spine, and that is wide enough to print on, which the team used well. If you are weighing silk against uncoated for an image-led book, our showcase of silk, gloss, uncoated and recycled finishes is a useful comparison, or just order a set of free printed paper samples.
The profile spreads follow one rule the whole way through and are better for it: editorial on the left, artwork on the right. Name, course, contact details, a small supporting image and a written statement sit on a calm white left-hand page, and then the right-hand page goes full bleed with a single large piece of work. You always know where you are, and the artwork always gets the bigger half.
What lifts it above a straight directory is the pacing. Those profile runs are interspersed with black and white action shots from the studio: students at a bench laughing, someone in a welding mask, work pinned up on the wall behind them. Shot on film by the look of it, grainy and unposed. It gives the book a flow, and it puts faces in front of the reader instead of only finished objects.
The headshot grid near the back does the same job more formally, and it is a lovely thing to include. Two pages, every graduate, same lighting, same crop. It reads like a group portrait of the year.
One honest note, and we say it because the book deserves it: the cover plays things very quiet. Lino-cut skull motifs in a single earthy brown on cream, with the title set small and light. It is a restrained, handmade look and there is nothing wrong with it, but it undersells the work waiting inside. If your cover is going to be understated, make sure the first spread the reader opens onto does some shouting for you.
Jennifer got in touch in March on behalf of the course, having never sent a book to print before. The first thing we did was work backwards from the show. The degree show opened on 5 June, dissertation and studio deadlines landed at the beginning of May, and she wanted the books in hand a few days early for peace of mind. We set 20 May as the artwork deadline, which left proper buffer for printing and delivery. She took that date straight back to the rest of the team and used it to hold everyone to schedule.
A free printed sample pack went out in the post so the paper decision could be made by hand rather than on screen. Then the spec moved, as it always does: the extent grew from 42 pages to 74 and finally settled at 70, and we priced 130gsm matt, 120gsm uncoated and 130gsm silk against each other so the difference was visible. The spine grew from 3mm to 4mm as the page count went up, and we recalculated it each time.
She asked a good question that a lot of people forget: does the spine need its own artwork? It does, as part of the cover file. So we sent two InDesign cover templates, one sized for silk inside pages and one for uncoated, with the spine already through the centre and the hairlines and white box locked so artwork could be dropped straight in over the top. Our guide to creating your cover file covers the same ground.
This is where a free file check earns its keep, especially on a first book. The draft came over early, as agreed, and we found four things worth fixing.
Her reply was the one we like best: “I've taken your advice on board and converted all the monochrome film photos into greyscale... It's good to get this advice.” Every one of those four would have shown up in the finished book.
We have been printing end of year catalogues for art and design courses for fifteen years, and the pattern is always the same: the deadline cannot move, the budget is tight, and the person organising it is doing it for the first time while finishing their own degree. So the useful things are unglamorous. Give them a date they can hold the group to. Post them real paper. Requote without sighing when the page count changes for the fourth time. Send a cover template instead of an explanation. Check the files properly and explain what is wrong in plain language.
Planning yours? Get a figure in seconds with our instant printing quote calculator, and if the budget is fixed, tell us the number and we will work backwards to a page count and size that fits. Browse the portfolio for previous year groups.
