Good news, everyone! Issue #2 of The Manual is on sale now. Karen McGrane, Mark Boulton, Josh Brewer, Alex Charchar, Trent Walton, and Cennydd Bowles connect the dots we never knew existed in 6 articles that challenge us to matter in our work and in our world, and set us straight on complexities in design.

Whats in Issue #2?

• The Colors of Grief by Alex Charchar
  
• The Sky Ain’t the Limit by Josh Brewer
  
• Ear Trumpets and Bionic Superpowers by Karen McGrane
  
• The Things of the Future by Cennydd Bowles
  
• Tongue-Tied by Trent Walton
  
• Visual Design Is Not a Thing by Mark Boulton

Featuring illustration work from Jon McNaught, Mike Lemanski, Dadu Shin, Rose Blake, Paul Blow, Always With Honor and Erik Marinovich.

http://alwaysreadthemanual.com

Save $10 when you subscribe to a year of The Manual, just $65 for 3 issues.

Photo credit: Grant Hutchinson (thank you Grant!)

Hello Kickstarter!

Just a quick note this afternoon to let you know that Issue #2 and annual subscriptions are now available on our website: 

http://alwaysreadthemanual.com/

What's in Issue #2?

Karen McGrane, Mark Boulton, Josh Brewer, Alex Charchar, Trent Walton, and Cennydd Bowles connect the dots we never knew existed in 6 articles that bring us to tears, challenge us to matter in our work and in our world, and set us straight on complexities in design. After heart-wrenching tragedy, a color-filled journey back as a man and as a designer; after one book, graphic design is diminished to fluffy pink frosting on a layer cake; after a woman goes digital, the world cracks open for her—yet she treasures the complex over the easy to use. What do archaeologists and pop cans, Texas BBQ, Miles Davis, the Hoover Dam, a silver fish, a rat, and a toaster have in common? In the words of remarkable writers they enrich our thinking about web design.

andy@fiction.co

So, we’ve been busy. Very busy. In the past five months, we’ve collected and edited articles from our six authors, commissioned and completed our six companion illustrations, designed, typeset and proofed all 116 pages—and, after breathing a heavy sigh of contented relief—sent a complete and final Issue One off to the printer. It’s been an exciting and exhausting journey.

There’s more to be said about that story, which we’ll tell in time, but we’re not at the end just yet.

The first issue of The Manual will ship to our Kickstarter backers on Monday 8th August, a little later than hoped. It will be delivered to us the Friday previous; we’ll pack throughout the weekend and drop them in the mail first thing Monday morning. All being well, copies of Issue #1 should begin to arrive around the world later that week.

All rewards will ship in the same package as the magazine, except our A3 screenprint (a reward for our $250 and $750 backers), which we’ll be shipping in a separate poster tube to ensure it arrives undamaged.

The Manual will then go on general sale through our website on Friday 15th August, 2pm GMT / 9am EST.

Survey

We’ll be sending out a Kickstarter survey imminently to collect your shipping information. We’d appreciate it greatly if you could respond to this as quickly as possible. (If you have any questions about shipping, please send a message through Kickstarter or email andy@fiction.co.)

Packing Party

Over the weekend of 5th-7th of August, the doors of Fiction HQ will be thrown open to anyone willing to stop by to help us sort through shipments, organise rewards, pack orders, stick address labels and organise shipments, and to generally assist us in getting every copy of Issue #1 out the door and in the mail first thing on Monday morning. We’ll have pizza, snacks, beer and tunes for anyone who decides to stop by, and can absolutely guarantee it’ll be 100% good times. If it’s five minutes or five hours, any and all assistance would be very much appreciated.

If you think you can make it, please RSVP and we’ll keep you posted on the arrangements: http://themanualpackingparty.eventbrite.com/