Freedom to Design

Adobe Illustrator CS5; font: Univers

I enjoyed Mr. Franzen's novel--the same couldn't be said for the book cover, which I found fairly uninspiring and, I might add, a bit sloppy on the raster work.

Making the Impossibly Boring Easy to Understand

Designed in Adobe Illustrator CS3; Font: Helvetica Neue; Dimensions: 7" x 9" x 1"

Taking something boring--like tidal current tables--and making it appealing is one of the most satisfying aspects of design, and I think it's fair to say that said sense of self-gratification resides entirely in the challenge. Anyhow, I drew the wave pattern several weeks ago for a design that has since faded into the ether--it happens that this was a perfect application, wherefore I ran with it.

Detailed versions of the front & back covers (and the spine) are available below. I decided to keep the back cover clean because there was no point in extending the pattern all the way.

Front Cover

Spine

Back Cover

The Neverending Gallery of Gravity: Nuclear Incineration Edition

Designed in Adobe Illustrator CS3; fonts: Gotham & Rockwell
Dimensions: 5.65" x 8" x 0.5"

I surmise that someone else has already used the trifoil pattern for a book on nuclear security, but not for Waltz & Sagan's relatively slim volume on proliferation, which, I would add, is requisite reading for several international relations classes at the University, all of which recommend themselves as engaging, generally well-taught courses. In any event, any resemblance to my redesign for Pape's Bombing to Win is pure coincidence, though the motif would probably serve admirably for a series on politics and security studies, perhaps as a counterpart to the "blue books" on philosophy and other such weighty topics.

I'm beginning to think that I can scrape together a living designing book covers for political science professors. "T^2: Freelance Book Designer"--I like it.

Front cover

Spine

Back cover

Drawn in Adobe Photoshop CS3

It's been a while since I did an illustration by hand, so here's some assorted sketches of soldiers, a topic only slightly less apocalyptic tha nuclear annihilation.

By Its Cover

Designed in Adobe Illustrator CS3; font: Univers (for the book design), Gotham (poster); Dimensions: 4.75" x 8" x 1.125"

I might do graphic design, but that doesn't mean that I have to be some vacuous hipster. Quite the contrary, I am a political science concentrator first and foremost, and my interest for political economic theory is certainly not inferior to my love of visual arts. On the rare occasions when they do intersect, the results can certainly be entertaining, as the (three) fans of my editorial cartoons will attest.

At any rate, yes, I am in fact reading Galbraith's The New Industrial State at the moment, which I picked up after finishing Power and the Idealists, a brisk read that recommends itself to those curious about the philosophical history of the European New Left. I'm enjoying the former title despite having not read it immediately after I had purchased it two years ago, and imagine that it'll be an edifying read. In the meantime, it occurred to me that the extant cover design for the book of record did not accord it the proper feeling, and so I'm taking a stab at redesigning one that, in my estimation, does. It's simply a coincidence that my design will be published by Plumtree's Potted Press, which, I remind you, is not a real business entity.

You will find below enlarged copies of the various components of the book, as taken from the poster above.

Inside cover: Front

Front cover

Spine

Back cover

Inside cover: Back