EDITOUR PETplanet Insider Vol. 23 No. 04/22 www.petpla.net 32 told me one or two anecdotes from his tour through Siberia in 2012. Very exciting... And what don’t I like? The blank patches on the world map, where PETplanet can’t travel because of the pandemic or for security reasons because of the political situation there. PETplanet Insider: No, we don’t like those either and we wish that one day we could travel to those parts of the world and build markets there. We’ve always had difficult situations or even corruption to deal with on our journeys, which is sometimes challenging but has always been manageable. With regard to challenges, what challenges does this kind of tour actually mean for you from a graphics point of view? Matthias Gaumann: Sometimes the greatest challenge is fitting a great deal of information onto a very small space. For example, when a route is to be illustrated with its many stops and these are geographically very close to each other - this can be very tight. Designers just love a big space to shape freely. Something else that can be challenging is collaborating with local service providers, for example when something has to be produced or printed on location. Then, there can be great differences in communication, the status of software or the typical workflow. But as the editor and tour manager, you are always at our side to manage communication and organisation perfectly. So everything has always gone very well. Thank you very much, Kay. PETplanet Insider: I do my best! I’d like to come back to our magazine, which is our main product, after all. From a graphics point of view, how does this kind of journal usually come into being; what are the processes? Matthias Gaumann: For me, it all starts with the issue plan that I receive on Monday from the editorial team. Then I know which text goes on which page. Next, I get all the texts and images. The artwork is checked for printability and converted to the required parameters. Then the texts and artwork are entered into the design grid and lined up. All finished pages are sent back to the editorial team for proofreading. Collaboration with Heike Fischer and Gabriele Kosmehl from the Editorial team is great – they really do a fantastic job. Thanks very much. Then the corrections come back and checks are made from a graphical point of view to ensure that the type area still fits after the corrections. I also get the files for the advertising spaces from the advertising department. These are also checked for printability and entered into the layout in accordance with the issue plan. For reasons of time, checking the printability of the adverts has to happen at least one week in advance. There’s no time for any correction of the data during issue production! Collaboration with Martina Hirschmann and Johann Lange-Brock from the advertising department is also really great. PETplanet Insider: I’ll be glad to pass that on! And is there more to do once all the corrections have been completed? Matthias Gaumann: After all the corrections – usually there are three “loops” – I then get “approval for printing”. I put together one whole printable file from all the files then I send this to the printers via FTP. Many thanks to our printer, Mr Frey at Chroma, for straightforward, friendly and excellent collaboration. After the printer starts the roll-out of the journals, PETplanet Insider is once again reconfigured into a web-optimised file version. On the Wednesday, this is then integrated into the website www.petpla.net using a special software tool and a workflow specially developed for PETplanet. This workflow was developed and introduced by Rolf Sinkovec and Felix Popp from the PETplanet team and it’s really fantastic. PETplanet Insider: On average, how many hours of work do you put into one issue? Matthias Gaumann: It’s usually around 50-60 hours on my side. PETplanet Insider: Can you try to show us a bit about how important the field of creativity is in your work and why or where it is particularly needed? Matthias Gaumann: Creativity is always essential! Even if journal typesetting with a fixed type area is predominantly good, old-fashioned tradecraft. Dealing with typography in running text has certain rules that you just have to learn. But you have to be creative, for example when compiling infographics or photo montages. Or with anything that is being newly created. Nothing at all happens without creativity, but the tradecraft that makes further processing possible in the first place is just as important. PETplanet Insider: OK, great! Have there been situations in the past where something went really amiss? Matthias Gaumann: Mistakes can always happen. The most frequent are spelling mistakes that can even have been missed by three or four people. It happens sometimes when you work on something for a long time. You get “professionally blinkered”. The most annoying thing is when it happens in short, large headlines and should be really obvious. Luckily, and thanks to the great team at PETplanet, I don’t have any spectacular stories for you! PETplanet Insider: Well, that’s a great reassurance to me! One last question for you: What else do you do at EXPRIM, apart from our work together? Matthias Gaumann: I’m able to work for very different sectors, companies and people. This includes medium-sized companies from various sectors including metal processing, plastic processing, machine manufacturers, automotive, tourism, trade, retail, property, healthcare, social and non-profit organisations, artisans, start-ups and many more. The range is wide and varied so I’m tackling new and exciting things all the time, both in theory and in practice. It’s fantastic and never gets boring. PETplanet Insider: Great. We wish you every ongoing success and we look forward to another great year of working with you and EXPRIM! Thank you for the interview, Matthias! www.exprim.de
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