A book does not begin with paper, ink or binding.
It begins with an idea, followed by conversations, the questions, the scraps of inspiration, and the false starts and breakthroughs. Slowly, individual contributions begin to find their place within something shared, and eventually, after months of thinking, making, writing, designing and refining, an idea becomes an object you can hold in your hands.
Legacy is the latest chapter in our long tradition of creating self-published studio books: projects that give us the freedom to step beyond the everyday demands of client work and make something entirely on our own terms.
This time, however, the subject felt particularly meaningful.
Legacy celebrates people whose actions, passions and determination have made a positive difference to the world around them. In telling their stories, we also found ourselves thinking about our own: the work we make, the people we share our lives with, the things we contribute and, ultimately, what any of us might leave behind.
Creating the book became a studio-wide endeavour. Designers, animators, filmmakers, producers, writers and collaborators each brought something of themselves to its pages. Different disciplines, styles and perspectives were brought together by one idea: that the impact a person makes is not always loud or immediately visible, but can ripple outwards in ways they may never fully know.
Then came the moment when all of that work stopped existing solely on screens and a book, printed and bound, was delivered dutifully by car from Dublin finishers to our Belfast studio.
There is something difficult to replicate about seeing months of creative work bound together for the first time. Feeling its weight and turning its pages. A printed book gives creative work a sense of permanence. It becomes a record of a particular group of people, at a particular moment in time, making something they believed was worth making.
For the people behind Legacy, that made seeing the finished book particularly special.
