When a new book goes into production, design and technical implementation come together immediately. This moment can be experienced particularly closely during a print approval. On August 7, 2026, we had the pleasure of welcoming a special guest to Beltz Grafische Betriebe for this occasion.
Illustrator Julia Dürr visited us in Bad Langensalza with her child to oversee the production of her new book, *How Are Our Things Made?*. This non-fiction picture book is the third volume in her series and was published by Beltz & Gelberg on September 24, 2026.
However, Julia Dürr was no longer completely unfamiliar with our production process at that point. A few weeks earlier, she had visited the various departments at Beltz Grafische Betriebe and made numerous sketches during her visit.
Some of it was subsequently incorporated directly into the book.
From the Printing Press to the Book
In “How Are Our Things Made,” Julia Dürr explores a question that often goes unanswered in everyday life. How are the objects that surround us every day actually made?
The book showcases various manufacturing processes and gives children a glimpse into crafts, industry, professions, and machines.
For her illustrations, Julia Dürr takes a deep dive into the places and processes she wants to depict. As part of her work on the new book, her journey therefore also brought her to us here in Bad Langensalza.
During her visit, she created sketches of the various areas of our production process. She observed the machines, workstations, and various stages in the process of creating a finished book firsthand and captured them in her drawings.
Some of these sketches later took on special significance. The drawings from our production process can be seen on the endpapers of the finished book.
As a result, our production process itself becomes part of the book’s design and documents in a very direct way how a finished book is created from paper, printing, and post-press processing.
Print approval on August 7 at Beltz
A few weeks after her first visit to the production facility, Julia Dürr found herself back at Beltz Grafische Betriebe.
On August 7, she came to Bad Langensalza with her child for the print approval. For both of them, the visit began with a short tour of our production facility.
A print proof allows you to monitor your publication closely as it is being produced. Instead of evaluating the print result based solely on the prepared data, you can view the print directly on the production line.
The key aspects involved always depend on the specific book project. However, especially with heavily illustrated titles, the final print approval is a special moment because the illustrations—which were previously developed on screen and on paper—come to life for the first time as part of the actual printed product.
For Julia Dürr, this also brought things full circle. After she had previously documented our production areas through drawings, she was now able to see exactly how those illustrations were produced alongside the rest of the book.
“How Are Our Products Made?”
With this new title, Julia Dürr continues her series of non-fiction picture books.
Following her previous books , *Where Does Our Food Come From?* and *Where Do Our Things Come From?*, she now turns her attention to the production of various everyday items.
The book focuses on workshops and industrial production and shows which steps, people, and machines are involved in the manufacturing process.
This makes the topic particularly relevant to our own daily work. A book, too, goes through numerous stages before it can be held in your hands as a finished product. From data preparation to printing to binding, different departments work together.
The fact that images from our own production now appear on the book’s endpapers makes this project, for us, a special connection between content, illustration, and the actual book-making process.
From the first draft to the finished book
Before a book is ready for sale, there are many individual steps between the initial idea and the final product. For designers, authors, publishers, and production teams, this requires close coordination across various project phases.
Julia Dürr’s visit also shows just how exciting it can be to follow this process up close. Initial observations made during our production process led to sketches, which in turn became part of the book; and a few weeks later, the printed pages were available for viewing right here at our facility in Bad Langensalza.
We’d like to thank Julia Dürr and her child for visiting, and we’re delighted that a small part of our production can now be explored in “How Are Our Products Made?”
If you’d like to take a look for yourself, you can find the book at Beltz & Gelberg.
Your book project with Beltz Grafische Betriebe
From prepress through offset and digital printing to bookbinding, Beltz Grafische Betriebe guides a variety of book projects through the production process.
Are you planning to produce your own title and would like to coordinate the production process with us early on? Please feel free to contact us.
