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For a great deal of the summer, my time had been consumed with the design of two books whose planning began over a year ago. I was fortunate enough to have been involved in the development phase of the project and luckily the pieces fell into place that allowed me the opportunity to execute the design. These new books will published by Providence House Publishers under the series name Historic Hospitality. The first two titles, Meet Me at The Belle Meade Plantation and Meet Me at The Hermitage Hotel will make their debut at the National Preservation Conference in Nashville in October.

The goal of the series is to couple historic imagery and narrative along with recipes that compliment the locale. These books will be a keepsake for visitors to the properties showcased in each title.

Personally, I can’t get enough of working with old images. There is a character in old photos that can’t be compared to contemporary images. The Belle Meade Plantation and The Hermitage Hotel didn’t disappoint with great photography.

The Belle Meade Plantation

One distinction between these two properties is that the plantation’s heyday, and thus most of its best images, come from the 1800s. Its history is rich with visits from heads of state to the breeding of thoroughbreds. From the publisher’s introduction,

We are proud to include the Belle Meade Plantation, located in Nashville,Tennessee, as one of our featured Historic Hospitality sites. Once rated among the most famous thoroughbred breeding farms in the world, it is still widely known as “The Queen of Tennessee Plantations, “ and still providing memorable glimpses of life as it was in the Old South. It is our pleasure to share her story here with you.

The Hermitage Hotel

By contrast, the Hermitage Hotel has had its ups and downs and been at the center of Nashville life since its construction in 1910 up to this day. Written about the hotel at its opening,

The Hotel Hermitage is one of the South’s leading hotels, in fact one of America’s noted hostelries. There is no hotel in the country more magnificently fitted, appointed, and furnished.

Since then it has seen success, been condemned and is now restored to its original grandeur. In 2010, the hotel will celebrate its 100th anniversary.

Design

The design of these books presented a unique challenge to that of a typical history. The inclusion of recipes and the editorial considerations gave an added wrinkle of complexity to the project. There were several rounds of revisions on each title, moving pictures or removing them altogether until it resembled a game of musical chairs. With so many moving parts, it’s very much like assembling a puzzle. As I said, having been in on the planning stages of this project, it was very gratifying to see it come to fruition. Be on the lookout for these and future titles. I will update here when they are available.

written by JM \\ tags: Books, graphic design, history

Defy Creative introduces DesignerPacks. DesignerPacks are collections of themed graphics for use in your own designs and are available now in the Defy Creative Store. The debut collection, DesignerPack 1,  features a 9 x 11.5 layered Photoshop document (.PSD) as well as two 9 x 6  layered Photoshop documents (.PSD) both including a bleed area. Also included are TIFF files that can be directly incorporated into your page layout application of choice such as Quark XPress, Adobe InDesign and Microsoft Word among others. Each file is in CMYK and fully editable. Additionally, the files can be used in your Keynote, PowerPoint or your presentation software of choice. NOTE: Adobe Photoshop is required to edit .PSD files and produce CMYK files suitable for printing. Other image editors such as Pixelmator or Acorn will produce RGB files suitable for online or on screen viewing.

written by JM \\ tags: graphic design, templates

One of the biggest challenges a graphic designer can face is getting others to appreciate the value of good design. Perhaps the first problem is there are those, who when you tell them what it is you do, don’t really know what graphic design is. Even when they know, the complexities of arriving at the right solution to a problem are lost on them.

When developing a brand identity, a company’s logo is the forefront of communication. When it comes to prices, logos can be priced from a hundred dollars to tens of thousands. With the latter, market research is done, focus groups formed. Microscopic scrutiny of every detail; colors, application and sizes among others.

At its essence it is art and likewise, for the most part, viewed subjectively. A logo’s value is based on what it does for its owner. For instance, in the rebranding of Fed Ex, there were over 200 designs for the now ubiquitous mark. The sheer amount of work that went into it no doubt cost tens of thousands if not more. No one would question that it was worth it.

Not every logo will garner the attention nor command a fee like that of Fed Ex or needs to. The important thing to remember is that a designer puts their effort into creating a mark in which you can take pride. Don’t sell yourself short by compromising what is an integral part of your image.

written by JM \\ tags: graphic, logo