The collaborators of five IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award winners in various design categories discuss their process.
California Indian Basketry: Ikons of the Florescence
Gold Award Winner – Interior Design
Authors: Wayne A. Thompson, Eugene S. Meieran
Publisher: Sunbelt Publications
How long have you been an independent publisher?
Debi Young (production manager): Sunbelt Publications was founded in 1984, incorporated on September 29, 1988, and has over 35 years of experience in the publishing business.
What were the main things you had to consider when creating this book, especially as it relates design?
Gene Meieran (author): There were many factors in play here. Our No. 1 goal was to have as high quality as possible images of very intricate baskets, notwithstanding the fact that many baskets were inaccessible (in private collections, in museum cases, in auction houses, etc.), each of which had different quality images we could work from. Regardless, we wanted to have image compatibility among all images, which required some skillful artwork. And second, since a great part of the book was relating the weavers to their baskets, often working from 80-120-year-old vintage black-and white photos, we wanted to be able to show the new basket images, along with the old vintage photos, without looking hokey. This, too, required some artistic skill.
What was the design strategy?
Meieran: First, decide on what baskets by what weavers would be appropriate for the book, along with some alternatives in case images were not available. Top priority were baskets seen in vintage photos of the weavers. Second, peruse all possible sources to see what images were available, and quiz known collectors and dealers to find out what might be available outside museums. Arrange for having photographs taken in cases where no photographs of sufficient quality existed. Third, make the arrangement of weavers in the book interesting, by randomly mixing tribes, weavers, styles … we did not want to lump all Washoe in one section, all Mono Lake Paiute in another section, etc., or having all weavers with lots of baskets clumped together, and all weavers with a few baskets clumped together. We wanted more to illustrate the diversity of styles, sizes, localities, shapes, and tribes.
How did you choose your designer?
Young: We knew the designer for this particular project needed to be highly detailed and very knowledgeable with using Photoshop. They would also need to be passionate and have knowledge in the subject matter itself. Kathy Wise was the perfect candidate with 30+ years of experience in book design, among other skills. She has worked with Sunbelt Publications for most of that time on various projects. Her attention to detail is impeccable. She goes the extra mile throughout the entire project being the watchdog for any areas where content needed additional work. Throughout the project, she made suggestions where she could see value in added details, which, in every case, we agreed with her suggestion and took the time to gather new content. This book would not have been the great project that it is without her. She is a gem.
Meieran: Not being experts in these areas, we counted on project manager Lorna Johnson as our go-between because she knew baskets, printing, art, color, design, and economics. She was invaluable.
How many comps did you have to see of the design before choosing the award-winning one?
Young: The authors came to us with a design vision, so comps were more about capturing the essence of their vision. By time the project came to a close, we had been through 16 official passes with several iterations in between that were not the complete book.
What were the biggest challenges you faced with the design?
Kathy Wise (designer) and Meiran: The 4/C black background proved to be challenging due to saturation issues with the heavy ink coverage over the majority of the book; masking the basketry, and making sure that the type would be legible. We tested and ran proofs of several rich black mixes with the printer before settling on a mix, and tested shades of 4/C gray for the text, because white text was too harsh on the eyes. We tested several font palettes to ensure that the serifs were heavy enough to hold up on the saturated background.
Equally as challenging was showing baskets at sizes in the images relative to each other as were the actual baskets, and this was difficult as we had to accommodate a range of 5 cm to 75 cm, keeping all baskets relative in size in the images. We did not want a reader looking at a fine small basket magnified to look like a large basket. Basket size, color, design, and weave were the paramount characteristics of image selection.
Is there a book cover/interior you used as inspiration?
Meieran: The choice of baskets was not random; we wanted to show a magnificent Yokuts gambling tray, a large bottle-nose basket, and a basket known as a degikup, of outstanding artistry and craftmanship, and this took a while to put together in a pleasing array. But we were not inspired by any other book we used for research; we made the basket choices on our own.
The Secrets of Dinosaurs: PNSO Encyclopedia for Children
Gold Award Winner – Interior Design: Children’s/Young Adult
Authors: Zhao Chuang, Yang Yang
Publisher: Brown Books Kids
How long have you been an independent publisher?
Tom Reale (president and CEO): Twenty-eight years.
What were the main things you had to consider when creating this book, especially as it relates design?
Reale: As this is a translated title, originally published with Peking National Science Organization (PNSO) in China, our main focus was faithfully representing the original Chinese edition in English while freshening it up for a new US audience.
What was the design strategy?
Danny Whitworth (lead designer): The design strategy was to make the English version the best it could be, while remaining as true to the original text as possible. This required some language reconfiguration, which can, in turn, effect the entire layout of the pages. Though this took many times combing through the text and working closely with the editorial team to maintain most pleasing visual layout, the end result was most certainly worth it. It takes a team!
How did you choose your designer?
Reale: We chose Danny Whitworth because he has a keen eye for detail and is incredibly talented. As the publisher who is proud to call him our own, we truly feel that he is the best!
What were the biggest challenges you faced with the design?
Whitworth: Hunting down issues in InDesign that got imported with the original files and fixing them proved to be the greatest challenge.
What do you think makes for good cover and interior design?
Whitworth: Composition and simplicity make for the best cover and interior design. An awesome illustration of a dinosaur doesn’t hurt either!
Local Color: Long Beach Island’s Photographic History Reimagined
Gold Award Winner – Cover Design: Nonfiction
Authors: Leslee Ganss (color); Ray Fisk (words)
Publisher: Down The Shore Publishing
How long have you been an independent publisher?
Ray Fisk (author): Since 1985, we’ve focused on regional and coastal history, gift books, art and coffee table books, and pictorial calendars.
What were the main things you had to consider when creating this book, especially as it relates design?
Fisk: We were trying to breathe new life into old black-and-white historical images, and we wanted to draw readers into their history organically, as if they walked into an exhibition. So the design (along with the title and subtitle) had to be inviting. We wanted the artwork to intrigue readers.
We also quoted very brief narratives from scores of regional history books we’ve published over the years (written or edited by others). One goal was to synthesize this varied material and promote and honor the work of others to bring new attention to those other titles. The gallery exhibition-in-a-book concept worked perfectly for this, as we could credit and give provenance in the text blocks.
What was the design strategy?
Fisk: Keeping it as simple as possible. Letting the images and words shine without visual distraction.
How did you choose your designer?
Fisk: We already had a great, creative, award-winning book designer in-house!
How many comps did you have to see of the design before choosing the award-winning one?
Fisk: Just a few, with different images, but we knew immediately when we had the one that worked best.
What were the biggest challenges you faced with the design?
Fisk: What to convey? And what to leave out! This book was a unique approach to history—it was pictorial, with many historic images, but also art, because those images had been hand-colored over several years; it included varying amounts of text, from different sources; and the stories and pages unfolded as if in a gallery. That’s a lot to convey, and we realized too much explaining would just get in the way. We settled on a single visually arresting image plus a few words as a teaser on the front and back covers. That was all that was needed. On the inside flaps, we included a brief description along with a two paragraph excerpt from the introduction.
What do you think makes for good cover and interior design?
Fisk: Avoid the temptation to over-design. We follow two good mantras: “Less is more” and “Just enough.” If you throw every design option into the mix, you make the process more difficult (and clutter can annoy readers if it goes badly!). Our goal is to tease browsers to pick up the book, to give it more than a passing glance, to create interest. If the material you are publishing is good, it should be given an uncluttered space to speak for itself—to delight.
The House That She Built
Gold Award Winner – Cover Design: Children’s/Young Adult
Author/Illustrator: by Mollie Elkman, illustrated by Georgia Castellano
Publisher: NAHB BuilderBooks
How long have you been an independent publisher?
Patricia Potts (senior director of product marketing): NAHB BuilderBooks is the publishing arm for the National Association of Home Builders. We’ve been publishing books for more than 60 years. However, The House That She Built was our first children’s book.
How did you choose your designer?
Potts: The designer works with the author at Group Two as the creative director. The designer was involved with the branding of The House That She Built project, which inspired the book.
What were the main things you had to consider when creating this book, especially as it relates to design?
Georgia Castellano (illustrator): The House That She Built showcases 18 careers in construction and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math), and each one of those careers needed to be represented page by page to coincide with the “building” structure of the narrative. We wanted to make it fun for young readers to pick up on the surprise at the end of the book, which is that all the women are building the same house together, so we revealed it gradually. We also had to consider the proper safety requirements for each tradeswoman. Hard hats and safety goggles are drawn on where necessary. The roofer has the proper harness on, the painter is using the proper ladder with grips on each step, and so on. Every scene in the book is Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) compliant.
What was the design strategy?
Castellano: The book’s mission is to support workforce development initiatives in home building by generating awareness of the skilled trades to the largest underrepresented community: women. Showing women with a diverse range of body sizes, ages, and skin colors for each career was our north star. We intentionally chose a color palette that isn’t dominantly pink and feels welcoming to all.
The book is based on a true story of a real house in Utah built by all women, so the strategy for the cover specifically was to represent the real house. A woman hugging the house felt like the perfect way to illustrate the sense of pride one might feel in a fulfilling career in construction.
How many comps did you have to see of the design before choosing the award-winning one?
Castellano: We went through about three rounds of edits until we landed on the final cover design. The first draft was a mock-up created in InDesign of the concept. Once that was approved, I took it into Procreate to illustrate it by hand. Then the third and final draft was just polishing and finishing touches.
What were the biggest challenges you faced with the design?
Castellano: The biggest challenge was figuring out how to represent each trade in one pose and in one spot. What would they be doing and where would they be doing it? For some pages, I’d need to research the job itself to figure out what tool they’d be using and what position their body would be in. For each woman, I’d get in that position myself, pretend I was holding the tool, and ask my husband to take a picture of me in that position. Then I’d use the photos to determine the composition of each page.
What do you think makes for good cover and interior design?
Castellano: The design should be aligned with the message. It should be an extension of the words themselves so that they work together to tell the story.
Is there a book cover/interior you used as inspiration?
Castellano: No, but we did follow @thehousethat_she_built on Instagram while they were building the real house to inspire the characters in the book!
John Deere Evolution: The Design and Engineering of an American Icon
Gold Award Winner – Cover Design: Large Format
Author: Lee Klancher
Publisher: Octane Press
How long have you been an independent publisher?
Lee Klancher (author): I started publishing books independently in 2008 and founded Octane Press in October of 2010.
What were the main things you had to consider when creating this book, especially as it relates design?
Klancher: For this audience, the machine itself is a critical decision—it needs to be a model that bridges the gap between modern and vintage, is handsome and popular, and is rare. We also need that machine to be lit beautifully and in an appropriate setting.
We built a photographic studio to make the images in this book, and we knew that the cover should come out of that shoot. In this case, the machine is a one-of-a-kind prototype restored by Brad Walk, who is one of the best in the business. He is so fastidious that he takes his boots off before getting on the tractor. The machine has literally been walked on only in stocking feet.
We knew it was the cover image when it was in the photo booth, and we spent hours getting that image perfectly lit and the machine immaculately clean. The overhead light bank takes care of the top of the machine, but getting the right amount of light into the engine bay, wheels, and so on is a finicky, time-consuming process.
After all that, the typography and cropping were pretty challenging. The cover needed to be clean and simple in a square trim, and the image of the machine is horizontally oriented. Making that fit and feel right was a tremendous design challenge.
What was the design strategy?
Tom Heffron (designer): Our primary focus was to keep the design in line with other marque histories published by Octane Press for continuity, but with some additional treatments. The book is fully illustrated with archival and studio photography, so we adjusted some of those images as backdrops for chapter openers, charts, and sidebars. These design treatments were purposely chosen for their industrial feel, as opposed to applying flat color or white backgrounds.
How did you choose your designer?
Klancher: Tom Heffron is our in-house designer, and he does 99% of our covers. His covers have been winning awards for several decades and is also a gearhead—he’s our go-to guy!
How many comps did you have to see of the design before choosing the award-winning one?
Klancher: We considered two cover images and probably did three or four comps looking at the two different images. Once we settled on the machine on the cover, the type and crop required a ton of finesse, and we did another 10-12 comps nailing down the details.
What were the biggest challenges you faced with the design?
Heffron: With a fairly generous page count, we had a lot of room to work with, but at the same time we needed full page areas for the images to run very large in some cases. And, of course, the text needed to flow well in kind. With this kind of situation, a detailed book map was employed and proved invaluable. Once we had a basic page design in place, with a “word count per page” and “image count per chapter,” we crunched the numbers, then made a few adjustments to get us to the final page count, with every page accounted for, and with no guess work as to where the layout would end up visually. The page map allowed us to partition the book into manageable subsets of pages before the layout began.
All of the individual charts were initially in one file and formatted at the same time so that we could keep them consistent throughout the book. They were a lot of work, but we were very pleased with the final look.
What do you think makes for good cover and interior design?
Heffron: In the case of the cover for this title, the cover image is the primary focus. The typography then follows in a manner as strong and impactful as the image. The interior design display typography is based on the cover for a seamless look. The typical rules were applied to the body text. In short, we relied on clean, simple, and classic for the overall design.