Remember this?

And this?

And this?

And even this?

Apologies for those of you who did not go to Williams College, don’t care a lick about Williams College, and are sick and tired of hearing us yammer on about our Williams College poster project, but Robbi and I have, at long last, reached the exciting conclusion of six months of hard work.

Several of you have asked whether the posters will be printed and ready to ship by Christmas, and we feel you deserve an answer.

The truth is, we’re not quite sure and don’t want to make any promises. At the same time, we want nothing more than to make you happy.

What we propose is this: anyone who would like to give the poster as a holiday gift can click here to preorder. Once your order has been placed, we’ll be happy to send you a PDF that you can use to print out a small-scale stand-in on your desktop printer, put in an envelope, and give to your loved one on Christmas morning, with assurances that the genuine article will arrive within a few weeks. We expect to have the final posters no later than January 7.

In other news, the proofs arrived from the printer today, and we think they look great.

There are two versions on two different types of paper. The smaller poster is 18″ x 24″ and printed on a Mohawk Via Felt a rich, velvety matte stock. We’ll be selling this one for $20.

This version includes small yellow circles next to all the items so that anyone who wants to can use it as a checklist (the subtitle of this poster is “The Williams Bucket List”).

The larger poster is a fine art print at 24″ x 32,” printed on thick (120lb), textured, archival, 100% rag watercolor paper with archival ink. Because of the fancy paper, and the inkjet printing process, the colors are especially lush. We removed the little yellow dots from this version to give it more of an high-end feel. Anyone considering framing will probably want to go in this direction. We’ll be selling this one for $100.

Here they are, side-by-side, to give you a sense of relative scale.

Iggy, who is generally a penny-pincher but also a total sucker for fancy paper, is still struggling to make her choice.

We’ll let you know the moment we get the actual posters from the printer, but if you are feeling awash in holiday generosity and want to get your order in now, click here to preorder.

And click here to link to a large-scale version where you can zoom in and do some perusing and click here for a glimpse into the sausage-making.

And once you’ve placed your order, just email me to request a PDF to print and put under the tree.

And, if you happen to be looking for that one-of-a-kind Christmas gift for kids, check out our other new venture, Bobbledy Books, a picture books and music club for kids. You sign them up, and over the course of a year, kids get five books, a five-headed crayon, a birthday card, and an album of original children’s music by fellow Williams ’97 Drew Bunting.

Here’s that poster again.