Project Management

One of the most challenging parts of working on a project like the Rescuers is definitely the fact that all of the people working on it are scattered across the globe. With the Bosnian version, there were people working on translations and the conference schedule in Sarajevo, photographers in England, Cambodia and other countries, the curator in (and out!) of the States and myself here in Japan. Skype gets a bit of a workout, to say the least, as does email. There are times though, when it would be nice to just be in the same room and work everything out, but alas, it doesn't work that way. As for the Bosnia exhibition, I've also found it really useful with this Cambodian version to keep tabs on things with project management docs.

Leora and I have a chat about the content of the exhibition, she decides who goes in (and I add my two-cents worth!), then I make a list which we use to make sure all of the content is collected. The list looks like this, this time around:

Apologies for having to break it up into two sections there. As you can see, what we have is a list of every panel, and whether or not we have the English-language content, the Khmer translations and the high res image. I have also made columns for the first round of design, which is almost complete, then a Khmer designer will work with the translator to typeset the Khmer, then it will come back to me again and I will fix up the English typesetting so that it all sits nicely together.
Then final checks will be done and it will go off to the printer. We're pretty much on schedule at this stage, as long as the first round is done by the 15th. Here's the other project management doc that I do up right at the beginning of the project, which I do up by working back form the opening date of the exhibition.

It's pretty simple, but very useful.

The other thing that these document do is encourage you to think systematically about a project. It's not just about the design - it's about communicating with a wide range of people from other countries. Keeping it clear, simple and precise can really help.