This is first of all a sumptuous photo book. It was conceived that way from the very beginning and was subtitled “A Pictorial History”. Unfortunately when we were chosen to design this book there were no photos attached to the project. Identifying all the appropriate photo sources as well as digging into those archives and finding all the individual pieces of artwork that would tell this story was a major part of the project. We had never done photo research on this scale before and were quickly reminded that the photo research process is every bit as creative as the more obvious design phase. The biggest problem with photo research is knowing when you are done. There are so many sources and so many images at a major university that you clearly cannot review them all. Nevertheless we put together a very impressive collection.

The design process itself required a sensitive touch because this book features an extensive text written by Susan Tyler Hitchcock that could not be placed in a secondary or adjunct position relative to the photography. We came up with a design that honors both and creates a very pleasing whole.

Incidentally, in addition to all of our research and design work on this book, we completely managed the color, prepress, and production of this book at Dai-Nippon Printing in Japan. The net savings to our customer: this cost almost HALF what it would have if it had been produced domestically.