We asked mocha about his preferences when creating an art book! pixivFACTORY BOOKS interview

It’s wonderful to be here, too.

My first art book came out on November 2014, so less than two years! We can say I’m still a beginner. (lol)

However, I started participating to a lot of event recently. Since I want to have a new collection for every event, I ended up having six different art books out there.

I try my best to come up with a theme for every art book. I choose the contents hoping that whoever is gonna see the book will understand what the theme is and the connection between the illustrations.

There are so many good art books in the world, so I want mine to leave an impression on whoever looks at them. I want people to say “Oh, I see. This book is that kind of book.”

About the technical aspects such as colors, I have to say I’ve always used the same printing company - so I don’t really have any preferences yet.

 always place the illustrations I’m most confident in the first page, in the last and in the middle. The introduction is important, and you can relax a bit in the middle and at the end of the book, there’s the dessert. I guess it goes something like that! (lol)

I always try my best to put myself in the readers’ shoes, to understand what they’d like to see.

Thank you very much!

It came out so well! Honestly, I didn’t think it would be much different from the art books I get printed at my usual place... I was so wrong!

Usually, when I send my art books to get printed, I convert my illustrations in CMYK format first. This often means sad, dull colors and it breaks my heart every time. When I received the art book from pixiv, though, I was shocked!

This time the theme was “the sky”. The cyan in all the illustrations came out so deep and vibrant, it was just spot on!

I don’t mean to say my usual printing company is bad, I always had the impression that their colors are quite similar to the ones in the CMYK version. However, pixivFACTORY BOOKS quality was far superior - the cyan looks so beautiful!

I was shocked at how pretty the colors could actually look like in an art book. I’m really happy someone made me realize it.

During the usual visits at one of the last events, I showed the art book to one of my acquaintances and everyone around us looked dazzled. I came to a conclusion that the printing company you choose really makes a big difference.

I found pixivFACTORY BOOKS easy to use and very intuitive. I had the impression it would be perfect for beginners.

The first time you bring something to a printing company, they shower you with difficult words such as "PP processing", "RGB conversion" and "wireless binding", so having a place where they take care of everything is somehow encouraging.

Also, I thought it’is a great service for all those who have been using only one company. That was also my case, and it made me understand how important it is to choose a good printing service!

Honestly, the price. (lol) But I have to say, after this little experiment you made me change my mind a little bit.

Secondly, and I know it might sound weird, but I really appreciate a good service. For example, if they give me a plastic case when it's raining outside and I have to carry my prints back home safely. It's something really small, but it's also what makes me want to go back to a certain shop a second time.

The fact that you can choose your plan according to your art book size, page number, event you're gonna participate and number of copies is simply awesome. You choose your parameters and different plans show up, already sorted by price. So convenient!

You don't have to pay attention to the deadlines, you don't need to think "I should fix either the number of pages or the number of copies if I want to stay within my budget" or no need for a calculator to check if the final price will be as you imagined. It basically eliminates all the inconveniences of printing an art book! 

I was impressed with the simplicity of the uploading process. You just upload your illustration and place it however you like. It's a similar feeling to the one you get when you upload multiple images to pixiv, and you can check how they'll look next to one another. If you're not satisfied with the results, you can fix the layout and try again. I think it's great! 

I always print my art books in full color, so this is what I went for this time too. However, there aren't many options to choose from (sometimes there's just one)… So I really wish pixiv could broaden their offer to match people's preferences and budget.

Also, I wish there was an option for landscape mode (horizontal printing mode) and a way to resize artworks...

Thank you very much! I can’t wait!

Woah! I’d like to make some leggings with a night scenery or sky print on them and have someone wear them for me (lol).

I’m really grateful for this experience. It made the whole art book making process 100% stress-free, and I feel like I made some new discoveries.