Started in Lockdown 2020, Ready in Lockdown 2021

The Nah, It's Canberra book is finally available. If you're reading this then hopefully you have some familiarity with the blog or instagram account.

If not, this site is all about the blog and maker, the book, the posts, and other stuff a website should have.

This post is about the road to getting here. A much longer road than I imagined.

I started sorting all the photos and captions and cataloguing in about March 2020. Lockdown (which was more of a voluntary lockdown in Canberra back then) was a strange time to work/not work, be motivated/not motivated, wonder what was happening to the world and watch Tiger King.

It felt nice to share Nah on Instagram - it originated on Tumblr but in March 2020 I put it on IG because we literally couldn't travel around Canberra.

It wasn't actually until March of 2021 that I had 'everything' sorted. The book designed and laid out through rapid re-learning InDesign. Then came learning about the printing process and picking a printer. And about three test runs of the design. And I love the final book design. 

In April 2021 I returned to Wellington, New Zealand. That meant the print proofs took weeks to turnaround because the printer is in Australia. It wasn't until 18 August I was satisfied with the actual book. 

As I waited for the proofs I had to think about selling the book - some more 'everything' to sort. I learned about online retailing with Shopify. Learned about bricks and mortar stores - support your local bookseller! Built a shop site. Set up banking, learned about postage. And I love the shop site (and Shopify).

As a service designer I couldn't do anything without clear intent definition, user testing, experience mapping, service mapping, expert input, prototyping, refining and defining. Much of this done online from Wellington with friends in Canberra, and with local experts and supporters.

And now it is August 2021. I am in lockdown in Wellington, my CBR fam and friends are in lockdown. Thank goodness there's no Tiger King. But there is a Nah, It's Canberra book!

I know the audience for Nah is way bigger than Canberra, but from my lockdown in Wellington, to lockdown in Canberra and around Australia, I hope:

• If you buy the book you enjoy Canberra as the real, cool, funny, good place that it actually really is.
• If you just enjoy the blog that's all that was ever intended from it.
• If you interact on IG account you also check out the other Canberra accounts.

Kia kaha,
Mel - 24 August 2021