La Passion des Couteaux is also back at work, preparing the autumn issue. After a busy spring, with the launch of the new website and the digital version of the magazine, followed by the special edition between the spring and summer issues devoted to Jean-Pierre Martin, LPDC has been putting its thoughts to rest to be at the top of its game this autumn!
N°165, special dedication
Issue no. 165 will be out at the end of October, packed with exciting news. It will be dedicated to Éric Plazen, who passed away 10 years ago. Éric left such a lasting impression that he is still talked about in cutlery and hobbyist circles. We invite you to find out why. Of course, many more articles on our favorite subjects await you: portraits, adventures, tests, discoveries, technical notebooks, trade shows, etc… What fun!
LPDC, A team effort
In the meantime, we have to prepare it. The authors are about to send me their work. Some have already done so, others are late, as usual 😉! Together, we had agreed on subjects that I thought would be interesting to present this autumn. Now I’m drawing up the “chemin de fer”, the detailed plan for issue 165, indicating the number of pages for each article and their position in the magazine. As I receive the articles (the best part of my job 😊 ), I reread them and have them corrected by Sophie Dabat, who, with her sharp eye, enforces the complex laws of the French language and unscrupulously trims words and phrases to make reading as pleasant as possible. At the same time, it’s the photos that go through the grinder. Once you’ve chosen the most beautiful ones and those most in keeping with the text, they need to be prepared: a little more brightness, toning down or boosting the hues, cropping, etc. And don’t forget the captions! Each knife must be meticulously described with the utmost respect for the knife-maker’s workmanship…avoid typos at all costs!… Alas, they’re a wild bunch, and always lodge themselves in a poorly-cleaned corner…
Now that text and photos are ready and an article is complete, it’s the turn of layout artist Antoine Laffolay to take over. He’s the one who lays out each article independently, then the whole magazine. He has to fit the text and photos into the given number of pages… not always easy… I can sometimes hear my ears ringing, then a phone call saying “uh, that’s not working… there are too many photos, you have to take some out…”. But most of the time, I love this part of the job, because it’s always exciting to see how text and photos can be combined to produce a coherent and beautiful whole!
Each article is treated in this way. Then, put one after the other, it makes the book!
Oh, I forgot! the cover! that’s quite a story… after meticulously choosing who to feature and with which knife, I always work with a professional photographer to get the most beautiful photo possible! Mathilde Tauvry (author of the cover photo for this article and covers n°161, 162 and 164), Romain Marchal (n°163), and others to come.
A magazine totally made in France
The rest of the work falls to Aubin Imprimerie, the printer based in Ligugé near Poitiers, and to Benoît Gourmelon to set up the digital version on the website. Tony Rayé is in charge of communication on social networks.
All you have to do is enjoy… without moderation….
