Illio goes on a business trip, to Dallas

On Friday, October 24th in the early morning (6:30 am) we left Champaign's Willard airport, where the security line was non existent and the plane was even smaller!

Okay so it wasn't that small, but definitely smaller than the usual flights I'm used to. Adam, Sarah Durham and I were on our way to Dallas, Texas with Taylor representative Jane to learn a little bit about how Taylor's publishing looks and works to put our huge book together.

Upon arrival in Dallas we were given a very cool tour of the plant. Things at Taylor work in signatures, huge panels of paper that get folded up into 8 pages booklets. All these 8 page booklets then get fed together and bound into our awesome yearbook. We got to see the HUGE machines that print these signatures, the machines that fold these signatures and ultimately cut the edges of the page so everything is neat.

It wasn't time for lunch just yet, though! We still had to meet with the cover artist. We spoke with her about texture for the cover and just about every shade of gold you could thing of. There are lots of different kinds of gold!

Before we knew it, we were hungry and were invited to a great lunch at Celebrations; a great Texas feel with good food and a friendly atmosphere. The two Taylor representatives that we ate with were also their to help us with any questions or concerns we had about InDesign. So once we got back we met with them in one of their brand new conference rooms to discuss troubleshooting while using InDesign (not to mention getting all the details about indexing!)

The rest of the time was ours. We met up with Sarah's sister who lives in Texas and all went to a huge purses and accessories store. Great deals ensued! Even Adam didn't mind too much and got his girlfriend a nice purse. Aww!

The next day meant more shopping at a HUGE mall (everything is bigger in Texas) and did I mention that Jane had been driving a rented car this whole time? This was half the fun. In Dallas they have a highway system that works with feeders. They were a little confusing at first, but we eventually got the hang of it. You can only exit on certain sides of the highway and you'll be lucky to end up where you want without cursing, because it's too late to turn back.

So, Saturday was a day of shopping at the mall and a visit to Gaylord Convention Center. This place was an attraction all by itself. It was like an indoor city! I was impressed! There was literally a village inside, with restaurants and shops and all along the wide and high enclosure were hotel rooms. Only a two minute walk away were the actual conference halls and ballrooms. They were incredibly overwhelming and I imagined 20,000 people staying here for a company conference weekend. Unbelievable!

Nevertheless, it was time to go back home. What a great weekend to learn about Dallas and Taylor publishing plant. It is very cool to see how our very own yearbook is made!

Paula Chuchro
Managing Editor
2009 Illio Yearbook

P.S. That is me and Adam at Taylor Publishing, on Mockingbird lane.