There was a raffle at Kinference with lots of good things related to folks that were speaking or present — one of which was the 4th edition of Craig Mod’s Kissa by Kissa (which I had been pronouncing wrong in my head since the first edition.. it’s keesa).
I subscribe to one of Craig’s newsletters and have been salivating over that book for a good while.
On the last day of the conference I got a notification that I’d won a copy. (!!!)
Craig did a quick hello on stage and revealed a detail I hadn’t known… It’s wrapped in paper to prevent having a bar code printed on the cover — that’s commitment to detail!
I waited till I got home to savor unwrapping the book about pizza toast filled with photographs and stories from the countryside of Japan.
It’s exquisite in every regard — the quality of type and photographs, the way it feels in your hand and the production method that honors everyone involved… It’s so. dang. lovely.
And it reminded me of a conference for the Figma design app in San Francisco that went down right before the pandemic. Craig was a featured speaker and talked about the process of making two other books.
Within days of getting home from that trip I was so inspired, I made my own book and had it produced to give to my friend about our Japan expedition.
Sometimes everything feels connected.
Moral of the story: Make books, even if there are only two copies, but also? This Kissa by Kissa book is really nice.
Oh, and if you’d like to see a glimpse of the Japan book I made, check it out here: The Japan Expedition