Work on The NoGood Book kicked off a year ago. I’ve steadily shared updates on NOSTR, but an update here has been long overdue; five months to the day, to be precise. What have I been up to, you ask? Let me tell you.

Over the summer I took on a few large illustration projects unrelated to NoGood. Under the NoGood moniker, I created new work for The Sovereign Engineering Cohort and TABConf7. Altogether, there was little time and energy left to work on the book.

When I did find time, the book kept shapeshifting. Because I found other books that inspired me to take a different turn; because of conversations I had with Daniël, my editor; or, because of the available budget.

The definitive design of this book has proven illusive. I’ve redesigned it several times, scrapped a lot of text, only to add it back in again a month later. It went from hardcover to softcover, to hardcover, and back to softcover again (this is final, I promise). When I was happy with its pages, I changed the size of the book, forcing yet another redesign of all 272 pages.

I’ve lost myself in the details once or twice, circling back to previous decisions and ending up elsewhere. It’s not easy to design and self-publish a book, but now I think—finally—I have a good grasp of its final form.

“I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.” — Douglas Adams

My original plan was to start shipping the book within a year, which is… now, roughly. The reality is I need a bit more time, and I hope you can be patient with me a little longer. I’ve blocked October through December to focus exclusively on completing the book, and finish it in Q1 of 2026.

What changed?

The book is bigger!

It grew from 170×230mm to 180×250mm. The difference seems small, but the extra space makes a massive difference. Many of the illustrations are now laid out horizontally, covering two pages, ideal for total immersion.

The book has more pages!

Altogether, the book now has a total of 272 pages. The Work and Process sections have been expanded; Work counts 128 pages, while Process makes up 64. It’s becoming a doorstop, looking forward to gracing your coffee table.

The book has an exposed spine!

I’ve opted for an exposed spine. This allows you to open the book fully, to lay its pages flat on the table, and makes it ideal for viewing the work that’s spread across two pages. An added benefit of the exposed spine is that it allows me to print something on the edges of the signatures (the backs of the sections of paper—excuse the technical chitchat). There are seventeen of those, giving me ample space to print a timestamp. The timestamp represents the first and last illustration to make it into the book.

The book has a softcover!

Visiting bookstores for inspiration, I’ve fiddled with many softcover books (like this one by Ardneks), and have come to appreciate it. I think it’s a great fit.

And, all articles have been collected!

I’ve finished collecting articles and blogposts to reprint in the Context section of the book—with permission of the authors: thank you! Bundled together, they provide the necessary context my work and thinking was inspired by or indebted to.

Budget & stretch goals

The Geyser crowdfunding campaign has been successful so far. The backers on the Bitcoin-based platform—and the rise in Bitcoin’s value over the last year or so—have ensured I have enough funding to create the book. So, between now and sending it off to print, I’m going to focus on reaching a few stretch goals.

A while back I opened Kaba2 again, a book by Otomo Katsuhiro. I picked it up during one of my visits to Japan. It’s large, and comes in a cardboard box, a slipcase of sorts. I flipped through it, put the book away and, a few weeks later, realised a slipcase like that would look great on The NoGood Book, too. I mocked one up and spoke to the printer who—unsurprisingly—told me: slipcases are costly to produce.

But, I want one! And so, with a few months to go before I send the book to print, I’m introducing a stretch goal campaign. It’s live now on Geyser.

Going forward, if you place an order, the funds go towards producing the slipcase. If you haven’t already, please take a look! You can order the book by itself, or choose an option with a print, too.

For now, thank you for reading, for your support, and for your patience. It means the world.

— Thomas

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Previous updates

The NoGood art book announcement Update 01 – Humble beginnings Update 02 – Throwback Update 03 – Loops Update 04 – Progress

Pre-order a book

The NoGood Book is available as a pre-order on Geyser (bitcoin-only & shipping included) and on nogood.studio (where Euro payments are enabled).

https://stacker.news/items/1280392