Like any creative team, we love combining forces with other organizations to create something we alone could not bring to life. That’s why we teamed up with Owen Jones, a creative agency here in Portland, to make this quarterly newspaper & notebook combo for an end of summer show and tell. We created the notebooks and contributed to the content, while Owen Jones did design and created the bulk of the stories, and the newspaper was printed with The Newspaper Club. We asked Eli Janin, a senior producer at Owen Jones, to share a little bit more about this collaboration.
What inspired you to start the quarterly newspaper project? Why a printed piece?
We wanted to set up an opportunity for the folks at Owen to work on something that either provided a chance to learn something new, work on something that inspired them, or just take a break from the tasks of their normal day to day. We chose print for our first two papers but our Fall issue will be digital. The medium is more driven by who is participating within our team.
How do you share the work?
This is a pretty informal process. We handed out 20-30 papers at different coffee shops near our office in Old Town and handed some out at a PSU Design event in our office. We also gave a bunch to our friends at Scout Books.
What inspired adding a Scout Book to the summer edition?
We thought that it would be fun to partner with another cool company in Portland. We had seen other printed quarterlies that had cool inserts or add-ons and thought that adding a Scout Book to the paper would be a fun addition, and would allow people to participate in the theme their own way.
What did you learn from touring the Scout Books shop?
One thing that stands out is the intricacy of the printing machines. It was really interesting to hear about how old they are and see all the little details that go into making sure they print correctly. It was cool to see under the hood of something that you have only ever seen the finished product for. We liked seeing the different areas and piecing together the steps it takes to make the finished product. We also learned that Scout Books has the most colorful and well lit office we have ever seen.
Huge thanks to Eli and the whole team at Owen Jones for including us on this project, and shoutout to The Newspaper Club for printing our favorite newspapers!
Project Specs
Originally published on October 5, 2018