A Conversation With Senior Design Director Rod Vera
When was the last time you read a physical book? When was the last time you read something online? The interface through which you read something matters. Reading an e-book on your Kindle is a different experience than opening a hardcover book and manually flipping through the pages.
Over the past four decades, History Factory has created award-winning and nationally recognized company history books. These capture the essence of an organization, bring its history to life and are often used to commemorate a pivotal moment in its evolution. They carry an enduring sense of value and prestige. That’s why we believe there is still a time and place for publications in a digital world. You just have to be strategic about what that looks like for your company.
To learn more about the ongoing role and value of print, we sat down with History Factory’s Senior Director of Design Rod Vera, who has been integral to every book we’ve produced over the past five years.
History Factory: Describe the impact of a physical book.
Rod Vera: It’s just a different connection. Studies have shown that a physical book is just more memorable for a person. Touching a tangible thing, the fact that they can physically move their body as they read, leaves a stronger impression than something digital. The physical also obviously shows a lot more labor in its creation, a stronger sense of craftsmanship.
HF: Describe the benefits of digital content. In what circumstances would you choose print or digital?
Rod: The best thing that digital supports is dynamic content and animation—like the passage of time, being able to tell stories in ways that are not just one moment in time, but it tells a whole story in 4D.
Being able to control the amount of content someone experiences—digital really handles that beautifully. It doesn’t mean that print doesn’t, but print is not nearly as accessible as digital environments and touchpoints, where content is always more dynamic and current. When you’re in a digital environment, you can interact with something and very quickly act on it and click on something, and it leads you to the next step.
Print is reserved for making a more memorable impression and making a statement about a brand or about history or about a subject. But I think digital really is much more keyed into keeping things current and having people act on things immediately and being able to get results quickly.
HF: Why do History Factory clients pursue a publication?
Rod: They want a physical experience, and often they want something to mark a milestone, especially if it’s a major one like 100 years. There’s nothing like a book to do that, right? They’re really building a legacy, and I think having a book—it just really helps to solidify the legitimacy of it because, again, of the permanency of print. It’s been documented in that sort of formal way, a time stamp on history. The book published is history in itself.
HF: Despite predictions over the years about the death of print, physical books remain popular with audiences of all ages. Why are younger generations more and more drawn to tactical experiences like printed books?
Rod: Younger generations—they missed the world where most things were physical. Everything went digital so quickly after computers were introduced. I think that they really didn’t realize the marvel of something being permanent, something being physical, that they can hold and keep physically in their space.
What’s valuable? What’s not valuable? Think about a beautiful poster you might see on a wall. You want to take it down and roll it up and take it with you, because there’s something so valuable about it. You rarely will see that kind of devotion for digital pieces. Printed books can be more personal, because once its purpose has been fulfilled, it becomes art.
HF: What strategies are you using to draw people into these physical experiences?
Rod: The way that the storytelling unfolds right from the very beginning—if we’re speaking about a book, the slipcase and all that packaging really helps to define the experience. It really whets the appetite for the audience to really dive into the book and come at it in a different way. It could be the way that the slipcase just reveals a part of the message, but when you open it, a second part of the message is revealed. That reveal becomes an “aha” moment that unlocks the rest of the story. So the fact that you can do that with just packaging and the way that something is housed in some kind of a box is always going to leave a bigger impression than clicking on a banner ad on the internet.
HF: Are you noticing trends in what clients want in publications these days?
Rod: Clients want to tell a story in different ways than just a regular chronological history book. They want them to be visually exciting–telling a visual story as well as a literal one.
They’re really focused on the cover, that first impression a reader gets. They’re realistic enough to know that not everybody opens this thing up and reads it front to back. So the cover becomes really important. The general design is critical, because that gives that impression of 100 years.
Something else I’ve noticed is that clients are more willing to let us be playful with their historical imagery. We have been really stringent about authenticity with visual assets in the past, but we’re realizing that we need to be able to treat images in a respectful way that honors the subject matter, enhances it. History doesn’t always tell itself. We need visual support, and we’ve seen clients want more of that.
HF: Do you think we will see more of a push for print in the future?
Rod: I really can’t predict. Just like everything does, trends go back and forth, up and down. It’s more like fluctuation than change. Obviously, new technology breeds new techniques, and then there’ll definitely be new trends based on that.
Print won’t ever be gone, though. I think it’ll always be there, but in what capacity? I don’t know. It’ll respond to whatever is going on with digital.
Rod Vera heads up the design team at History Factory. Over the past 20 years, he has successfully assembled, guided and inspired teams of design professionals in the United States and abroad to create high-profile thematic and branded experiences that enlighten, entertain and move people to action.
Interested in marking your milestone with a publication? Talk with us today.