Trinity Ball Guide
The Ball Guide was one of those mammoth projects dreamt up literally on the back of a napkin. In this case the napkin belonged to Bewley’s Cafe in Dublin and joining me in the dreaming (and subsequent production) was photographer extraordinaire Martin McKenna.
The Ball in question was the Trinity Ball – Europe’s biggest private party and an annual event. More akin to a mini music festival, the ball would feature a number of “stages” with different acts performing on each throughout the night. Like many festivals the lineup was kept top secret until the very last moment and we were only able to negotiate a few days advance notice.
This meant that the entire magazine – 80 pages of newsprint quarter-fold – was produced over one weekend. The magazine was huge success, both critically and financially and has been produced by subsequent teams ever since. The design attempted to be quite “rock’n’roll” and happily won the approval of many of the acts, as well as the reading public.
The magazine was also recognised in the National Student Media Awards, winning Best Magazine and Best Layout and Design.