Layout Design

Client: Dan Morgan through Opus Self-Publishing

Roles: Cover design, layout design, typesetting

Size: 8.5” x 11”

Russia’s Changing Empire

When Dan approached me with these beautiful scans of the Pulitzer Prize-nominated article he had co-written back in 1972, I knew we had to put together a package that did them justice. We arrived at a layout that let the article speak for itself. To help it stand alone, I took full advantage of the maximum available trim size and the extended bleed I added to the scans, stretching them to fill almost the entire page. For the cover, we made a few modifications to a cartoon featured in the original piece, taking more than a little inspiration from Post-Revolution Constructivists. It was an honor to aid in preserving and presenting such a high-quality piece of long-form journalism, something that seems to be falling more and more to the wayside in today’s media frenzy.

The Good Neighbor’s Banana Bread Cookbook

Client: David Dent through Opus Self-Publishing

Roles: Cover design, layout design, typesetting

Size: 7” x 10”

You’d be hard-pressed to find a more comprehensive volume on banana bread than this one! How else could we have presented over 70 award-winning banana bread recipes, not to mention the history of banana bread, short stories on banana bread, and a breakdown of the individual ingredients in banana bread, than to go bananas? The design goal was to present the book as a one-stop-shop for all your banana bread needs. We pulled the color scheme and custom design motifs from a banana’s browning complexion, the tell-tale sign that your fruit is ready to become dessert. The recipes were then organized by their country of origin, with the typography borrowed from images of Latin American fruit markets I had sourced during the research stage.

Travels with Stephen

Client: Stephen Gunzenhauser through Opus Self-Publishing

Roles: Cover design, layout design, typesetting

Size: 6” x 9”

Conductor and author Stephen Gunzenhauser wanted a “classic” look for his memoir, with his stories presented simply and cleanly. I was happy to deliver a volume typeset in Minion, with drop caps and small caps providing an appropriate formality to the introduction of each chapter. Straightforward, effective, “classic.”