This film was made thanks to the enormous commitment of many wonderful people.

4 trips, 840 hours spent on Zakynthos, 2000 km travelled on the island, 28 days of shooting, 3TB of timelapse footage, 380 hours of post-production, 100 kg film equipment weight.

It took me a couple of weeks to finish the first draft of the chapter, then it was reviewed for the first time. Vitaly gave some nice feedback about where I could go into a little more detail (he is always thirsty for more knowledge), so I did. After the second review, there wasn’t much to edit anymore. I went over the chapter one more time and sent it for proofreading.

We used Basecamp as the communication management app. By “we” I mean Vitaly, the Smashing team, and everyone else who worked on the book. It was my first time using Basecamp and I quite liked it — it helped keep everything organized and in perspective. Knowing where everyone was in the process of writing was also quite helpful.

When I told Vitaly I wanted to write this article to introduce the SVG chapter to you, he asked me to be as critical of the entire writing process as I wanted, and mention anything I did not like about it, or even about him! But I couldn’t come up with anything, really.

The one and only criticism I have is the delay in the release date. I’m a very punctual person and when we started working on the book it was scheduled to be released in March and to start shipping in April, but it took a few months more to do that. That said, everyone who worked on the book also had a ton of other commitments and stuff to do besides writing it, so delays like this are only natural, I guess.

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It’s a great time to be a curator-consumer, because never before have so many aesthetically neglected industries been given branding and packaging makeovers. It’s not just bougie chocolates and cleaning products either. As the book shows, these days, you can also pick a roofing company that has a well-designed logo and business card, or a dermatologist with smart branding and great-looking forms for you to fill out.

Back in the day, editor Robert Klanten says, “If you’re a roofer, a barber, a nail bar, or you produce wooden toys, your visual output may be very, very sad and sort of low key, or based on stock photography.” That’s changed over the last 10 years, as people have left office jobs to pursue smaller, more personal businesses. And when they do, “they want to express themselves,” Klanten says. “They may not make as much money, but they’re devoted to what they do.”

Start Me Up! is a sign of the times. The book covers small businesses all over the world, and in all manner of trades. There’s a bakery in London, a kitchen knife company in Tel Aviv, an acupuncture and homeotherapy practice in Barcelona, and a cotton handkerchief seller in Nara, Japan (among many others).

It doesn’t matter how niche the micro-industry—it’s clear that the ballooning number of entrepreneurial projects in the world make for fierce competition. Businesses need to speak to customers holistically, and one way to do that is through notepads and gift boxes. These types of branded materials even show up in non-creative fields, like physical therapy or head hunting. There are plenty of cleverness and visual puns to be had, but a lot of the companies seem to share a spare, squeaky-clean aesthetic, which Klanten says might be part of creating a sustainable business: “People tend to create something that seems to guarantee visual longevity. Whatever they do, they try to be authentic, reliable.”

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