Hey,
I hope you’re all having a lovely Monday, at whatever hour you're reading this!
I’m currently working on something really exciting (to do with shooting on film 👀📸) but I’m struggling with my own impatience. I find it can be so frustrating when things take longer than you initially expect, when seems as if there is just always more to be done.
I suppose it’s a blessing and a curse that to want to make sure things are close to perfect the first time around, yet I know I always learn more by trying and failing, and thus having the opportunity to try again and fail again. If I mull over the details for too long it’ll never be perfect, nothing can be really, and instead I’ll grow tired of something that I started off really passionate about.
It’s funny though, this is never the case with professional work, not because I don’t give those projects my upmost, but the deadline means there is a completion point, a point where I have to hand it over to the client or hit ‘publish’. Whereas with a personal project it is up to me, so often when I set targets they are completely arbitrary and my brain knows that, it knows they can be pushed back.
Anyway, C’mere to me…
The most widely-distributed publication in the world 🤯
End of the Ikea Catalogue
Early last week, Ikea announced that they have decided to end the publication of it’s infamous catalogue, which has been on a 70 year print run.
I was amazed to read though, that at it’s peak the Ikea catalogue was the most widely-distributed publication in the world, with more copies printed each year than the Bible or the Qur’an, or likely even both combined,
In 2016, an incredible 200 million copies of the catalogue were printed in 32 different languages.
This is on an annual basis, not copies printed ever, obviously, and there isn’t anyone officially tracking this either but people estimate about 100m copies of the Bible are printed every year and the Guardian has that predicted number for next year at a huge but much more modest 40 million, so that title for the Ikea catalogue does seems accurate.
One witty comment on the internet did point out though that at least no one has been killed for owning a copy of the Ikea catalogue…
Ikea Catalogue 2021
The decision, not taken lightly, was largely due to changes in the way media is consumed, with Ikea looking to move their attention and funding to their website, app and general online retail presence, given that in this past year they saw a 45% increase in online sales.
“The first 68-page Ikea catalog was released in 1951 by the furniture chain's founder Ingvar Kamprad, eight years after the company launched.
Its print run of 285,000 copies was distributed across southern Sweden.
Fast-forward to 2016, and the catalog reached its highest print run. Around 200 million copies were distributed in 69 different versions, 32 languages, and more than 50 markets. Since 2000, Ikea has launched a full digital version of the catalog, too.
The catalog as we now know it is a massive affair for Ikea, taking around 9 months to design each year. It shoots the images in its own studios in Älmhult, Sweden, which is one of the biggest photo studios in Europe.
(read more - Business Insider)
Ikea Museum
Speaking of publishing
Scientific Publishing
For those interested science and the publishing of papers, I read this interview with Michael Eisen, editor-in-chief of the journal eLife , and thought it was interesting.
He talks about their new decision to only review manuscripts that have been already posted as preprints and to try push research forward by not conducting peer reviews behind closed doors.
“We’re in an exciting position in that we have the means, the papers, the community, the support to really make this happen and see how people use it. The people who fund us realize the current publishing system is bad for science. Our hope is that we can make such a system work and once we do, it will create the fertile ground for others to come along.
I imagine the early scientists of the Royal Society involved in creating the first journals: If they came forward to 2020, everything in our world would shock and terrify them, but they’d find deep comfort in scientific journals. That’s a deep condemnation. We’ve been stuck in one model. I view what we’re doing here as a critical step in the unsticking of science publishing.”
(read more - Science Mag)
Smile 😊
Saved 📷
Think 🌊
Walking around at work and chatting with random people is considered lazy, unless you are the CEO, then you’re down to earth
That’s all 🤙🏽
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Guy