The Norwegian-American Center here in Madison asked me to help them make a new version of a book of woodcuts by a local artist, Olive Jensen Nordby. For most of the book I just recreated the existing layout as digital files that could be sent to an offset printer. But for the dust jacket they… Continue reading Book Cover for Olive Jensen Nordby
Tag: Book Design
Roy Chapman Andrews
This was a really fun cover to do. Richard Quinney wanted to publish a paperback version of a book we did for Borderland Books a few years ago. He also wanted to jazz up the look of this version and thought we could use an illustration Steve Chappell had created for the hard cover, but… Continue reading Roy Chapman Andrews
Cows: A Closer Look
Paul Thoresen takes beautiful pictures of cows near his home south of Madison. He had already created a book of his photos with text on Blurb, but when he decided to publish the book through Borderland Books, he asked me for design help. I took what he had created and added spacing, better fonts,… Continue reading Cows: A Closer Look
A Farm in Wisconsin
This book is the story of Richard Quinney's family from the time they settled on a farm near Delavan, Wisconsin, several generations ago. Richard decided to do the whole book in full color in order to reproduce the various beautiful tones of the photos of his ancestors. To that we added a color intro page… Continue reading A Farm in Wisconsin
Ox Herding in Wisconsin
This is the latest book from Borderland Books, written by Richard Quinney. The design is a collaboration between Richard’s ideas and my implementation of those ideas in a book layout. The entire book, including the cover, was printed digitally at Worzalla Printing in Stevens Point. The book was published as a paperback because at the… Continue reading Ox Herding in Wisconsin
Studies
Unable to travel to Chicago this week, I've been doing copies like the ones on the sketchbook page above. They're from Jan Kunz's “Painting Watercolor Portraits that Glow.” The Strathmore 5.5 x 8 Visual Journal with 90# watercolor paper is cheap and, while not the best paper, adequate for fooling around. Plus I thought I'd… Continue reading Studies
Apple Ipad
My thoughts on the newly-announced Apple Ipad. I’ve been watching the evolution of electronic publishing closely since I’m so involved in book publishing through my design work. First off, just let me say sure it’s awful that we’re moving away from traditional books to electronic substitutes. But it’s always been this way throughout the history… Continue reading Apple Ipad
Of Time and Place: A Farm in Wisconsin
Cover Project Typesetting, design, and illustration for Richard Quinney’s book about his family farm. I worked closely with the author to create a design that would accomodate his text, family photos of his ancestors, and his recent photos of the farm. More Pages The background color for the dust jacket was pulled from the barn… Continue reading Of Time and Place: A Farm in Wisconsin
Lindbergh’s Badger Days
Project Writing, editing, design, and illustration for a book about Charles Lindbergh’s time as a student in Madison. I was asked to assemble the writing into a coherent narrative and design and produce the book. My work also included an original illustration of Lindbergh’s historic flight to separate the time he spent in Madison before… Continue reading Lindbergh’s Badger Days
Ken Crocker Artist 