Guidebooks are here!

Dear friends:

The Guidebooks and Maps arrived today. They were conceived as tools that will help the viewers navigate through the festival. With almost 90 sites throughout the city, we needed a system that would allow for fast and easy location of a given project. We were ready to sacrifice great design for great readability but, thanks to designer Tony Smyrski and Editorial Advisor Joseph Newland, we did not have to compromise. The Guidebook is stylish AND easy to read. It will be available at the bookstores at selected venues.

The Map, put together by Dave Brett, taught us that there is nothing more difficult than making something that is clean, simple and uncluttered but that still packs an incredible wealth of information. Guidebook and Map were project-managed by our own Caitlin Perkins and Rebecca Mott, respectively. The map, which will be given to the public for free, can live beyond Philagrafika 2010 and become the unofficial culture map of Philadelphia, since most of the cultural institutions in the city are participating in Philagrafika. Same with the Guidebook: need the phone number of the Philadelphia Center for the Book? it's there. Want to know if The Clay Studio is open on Saturdays? it's also there. Wondering if admission is free at the Main Line Art Center? All there, as well as the street addresses and websites of all of our partners.

The cover of the Guidebook is a public acknowledgement of the hardships that come with putting together such a complex show. It's our (graphic) unconscious anguish coming to the surface. Carl Pope, one of the artists in the exhibition, kindly allowed us to reproduce one of the posters for his 2005 project The Bad Air Smelled of Roses. We are grateful to Carl for his generosity.

José Roca.