“Dear Lulu is a test book which was researched and produced by graphic design students at Hochschule Darmstadt, Germany, during an intensive two-day workshop with London-based designer James Goggin (Practise). The book’s intention is to act as a calibration document for testing colour, pattern, format, texture and typography. Exercises in colour profile, half-toning, point size, line, geometry, skin tone, colour texture, cropping and print finishing provide useful data for other designers and self-publishers to judge the possibilities and quality of online print-on-demand—specifically Lulu.com, with this edition” (blurb on Lulu).

Because the book is also offered by other print-on-demand providers, such as the US Blurb and MagCloud, the Norwegian Kolofon (now defunct), and the German BoD, “a print-on-demand-battle” might even be initiated (James Goggin, “Farben on Demand,” 40). The title of each of the test publications is adapted as necessary, for example to Dear MagCloud or Dear Blurb. A free PDF is available on MagCloud.

Since every print job takes place at a different time, with a different machine, and potentially at a different production site, in the end every copy is unique and can only stand for itself. It is not possible to generalize the test results. Neither can the print-on-demand provider guarantee a certain product quality.

The students were also interested in the sustainability of production, i.e., whether the copies are produced locally. For this, one copy was ordered in London and another in Darmstadt. However, both were printed in Spain.

In 2009, the project received a Gold Cube from the Art Directors Club in New York, in the category “Book Design: Public Service / Non-Profit Book.”