Client/Designer Objective
The GQ LUXE BOOK was created to inform and encourage current and potential advertisers about advertising opportunities in GQ Magazine. In recent years the GQ audience has become increasingly affluent, with a demographic that has steadily increased by more than 50 percent since the year 2000. Keeping this demographic in mind, the LUXE Book had to connote a sense of opulence. From the rich brown cover to the generously thick paper stock, even the text and images, all needed to convey a luxurious lifestyle. The overall feel of the book had to fit with the image of pure luxury, affluence and the modern man.
GQ approached Vertical Group, a marketing productions company, to make their vision a reality. Vertical Group President Steven Capellini knew that the LUXE BOOK cover was critical to selling the key message. It needed to be the perfect hue and incorporate a feeling of luxury through print. GQ and Vertical Group decided on a rich chocolate brown color for the cover, with a standout gold foil stamp in the center of the page, but the team ran into trouble when the time came to replicate their vision.
They explored using a dark brown, uncoated stock, but the color was not the deep brown for which the group was searching. They also considered screen printing, but the idea of printing, laminating and foil stamping was daunting and would have likely proven disastrous. “Eventually, we came upon the PANTONE Goe System,” said Capellini. “Of all the options we looked into, the PANTONE Goe System offered the most color choices and was the only solution that had the deep, chocolate hue we wanted, while providing a truly opulent feel. Foil stamping the gold logo on the chocolate brown cover was a simple process and turned out looking just the way we envisioned. With PANTONE Goe, we achieved something that would have been impossible to achieve with other inks and stocks currently available on the market,” Capellini concluded.
Goe Colors Utilized
PANTONE Goe 34-2-7 (double hit). Additional process applied: foil stamping.
Production Workflow
Design and Layout: Adobe® InDesign®
Proofs: Fujifilm FinalProof
Press: Man ROLAND 700 / 8 Color / 40” press