Working in the catalog business for a bit, I learned that items like carpet, tile, countertops, and even appliances vary in price points from one geographic region to the next. This got me to thinking, if these catalogs are produced for a national market, how are certain spreads with these items differentiated for each market?

Enter in several pages of matrices for each item. Granted in the end, there were only (only?) 27 different versions of catalogs to produce, but someone had to keep tabs on them all, reading matrices, and verifying pricing in every single copy block.

I actually went to the press check during this production, but I never saw all 27 versions in finality. The client signed off; I kept my ducks in a row; and I never received any scathing phone calls after the catalogs went to the public, so I consider it a job well-done.