Recently Soar Arts printed an amazing book for one of our favourite not-for-profit clients. It’s the 2018 lyric book for Play it Strange, which captures the 16 original songs written by young New Zealanders during last year’s Lion Foundation Songwriting Competition.
It was a pleasure to help Mike Chunn and his team put this book together. The Soar Arts team was even involved with doing the artwork, following a template created by the Play It Strange graphic designer.
Every double page spread of the book shows an introduction written by the songwriter, then the lyrics of their song. Professional recordings of the songs can be heard at www.playitstrange.bandcamp.com
“Songs written by young NZers forge a communal strand, a national voice, a summation of who they are and with that, it’s clear that they are telling us who we are. Listening to the hundreds of songs that we receive at Play It Strange is like opening a window into the hearts and minds of our youth. And there is much to learn.” Mike Chunn, CEO, Play it Strange.
We produced the book on our new Océ VarioPrint i300, which is based at Fusion Print in Hamilton (a member of the Soar Printing Group). With this amazing piece of printing technology, you can literally touch one button and have a fully-formed book come out the other end of the press. It can fold and stitch (staple) a book in a way that creates a square spine up to 10mm wide – up to 180 pages plus a cover. Your get a perfect bound book, but without the high price that usually comes with perfect binding. For small runs (1 to 2000) it’s a cost-effective way to get a high quality result.
The book was also produced as a Partica digital flipbook. The ability to produce electronic versions of printed books is an important part of Soar Arts capability.
View a Partica flipbook of the lyric book.
Find out more about Play It Strange
Learn about the Océ VarioPrint i300 for book printing.
Here’s an excerpt from the song ‘Dinner Plate’ written by Tara Canton of Chilton St James School, Wellington.
Honestly, isn’t it so strange how her
battery has become so low so suddenly
and how she hates the sight of cutlery, lately.
Red-rimmed eyes become more waterfilled
the more time flies, I notice her jeans have
gone down in size and how she never comes to meal times.
Pins and needles in her arms and legs
cotton wool stuffed in her head
flippin’ through these old magazines
she sees beauty but all I see…….
Are these pretty girls with parasols
picture perfect Barbie dolls,
skeletons at the table tasting lettuce leaves
although they’re craving
sea salt, crinkle cut, whiskey in a sippy cup
