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While browsing the web I discovered a tech gem. It is the "Little Red Book" of Facebook, an employee's handbook from 2012. A handbook stating Facebook's mission, history, and culture to employees. It the best startup culture book I’ve seen. And it was only printed in a very limited run.

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It has been quite a "obsession" of mine for the last month or so. It was not so easy to hunt down all the pages. Maybe because it is a niche thing or maybe because if you own the original, you treasure it like a secret. Once I read it, I knew I wanted to bring it back to life. From scans to a new high quality digital form that would make it justice.

The book captivated me immediately. It felt like getting access to an exclusive behind the scene to one of the biggest companies in the world.

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Even though it is "only" 11 years old (it was made in 2012) it feels like an artefact from another era. A period that was peak Silicon Valley. Many companies were not yet the absolute juggernaut they are now. Where Facebook had "only" four thousands employees.

I am nostalgic about that period. It was when I started studying Computer Science pushed by all that was happening over there.

Before all the scandals and government interventions. This book feels genuine and delineates perfectly how it must have felt working there back then. It contains very relevant essays and ideas that were going to end up having real-world implications. I will not spoil it for you, it is worth going into reading it with no preconceptions.

After remastering digitally, I decided I wanted to see it materialized. I wanted to hold it and have it with me. Feeling like a Facebook employee would have felt back then.

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I took some liberties given that, in some cases, I couldn’t find the original images. The alternatives are hopefully still fitting and convey the same feeling. I learned a lot through the book creation process. Following the beautiful composition, the typesetting, the images, book sizes, the material, the format. As an avid reader I never really paid too much attention to the making of a book, but I appreciate it much more now.

A lot of us live an intense digital life that is easy to forget how special and emotional it is to create a physical thing! Things that occupy a space and act as reminders. Things that you can feel and touch.