My blog.
Thoughts on books, design, storytelling, family, and more. From my little corner of the world to yours.
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From a book I’m working on right now.
A photo this newlywed sent to her husband in World War II. On the back she wrote, “My skirt couldn’t be much higher but – look at my wedding band – I still want to pinch myself to see if I’m dreaming – you’re all mine dearest – we’re one forever.”
Love is the greatest.
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Old-fashioned savings accounts.
Mine wasn’t so yellowed and wonderfully old-fashioned as this (my great grandparent’s) but my first savings account was recorded in one of these passport-like booklets.
A far cry from online banking! I showed this to my younger cousin who didn’t even know what it was…
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Shannon just sent me this beautiful image of her holding her newborn girl. I just love it! Something about the black with the lovely blonde lil babe.
We’re using the photo for her daughter’s birth announcements. They’ll be similar in design to Joel McHale’s son Isaac’s announcements which you can see here and here.
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If, like me, you are a fan of Moleskines then you will love love this book.
Eric and his family spent 8 weeks in Brooklyn and he kept a daily journal while they were there. Along with his photos, we crafted his very own custom moleskine to remember the trip.
Here is:
brooklyn
8 weeks / fall 2008
The custom endsheets below feature the subway map of Brooklyn. We marked their apartment location on the map. For a journal feel we added graph paper lines, highlighter marks on some of the text, and a handwriting font for the photo captions. I love this next page with his 2-year-old daughter's favorite phrases. Precious. If you just can't get enough, there are more photos here! . . . . .
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I spent last weekend visiting my Dad’s family in Bakersfield, where I have lots of family history. My aunt dug up some old family photos for me and there were some real gems.
I especially love this one of my grandmother (on the right) and her girlfriends. Something about it – they’re just so carefree and happy to be together. Girlfriends are timeless.
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And no, I’m not talking today’s economy…I’m talking Great Depression.
This is the work of a man who made it through the Great Depression with imagination, pen, paper, a fancy camera, and a whole lot of gumption.
I heard this story last week from Bob, who is working on his family history book with me.
Bob’s father’s garment business was liquidated during the Great Depression. He needed another way to make money, so he started to draw. And it turns out he was GOOD at it. He illustrated these children’s books and pitched them to publishers…and got some published!
And then he somehow acquired a camera with the fastest shutter speed at that time. He started taking "rapid sequence" images like these.
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Here was a very fun book to work on. Gary’s wife and sons put together this surprise book for his 60th birthday. They also threw a very fun party…and invited me to attend! I was touched, and so happy to meet Gary in person after learning so much about him from his family.
About the book. For the cover we used a brown leather with bronze stamping, and for the endsheet I designed a pattern we incorporated into the book pages too.
We used what I call the “chapters of your life” approach to this book. Here is the table of contents page with the different life chapters we used. And the dedication...always short and sweet. We included a bio about Gary's life at the beginning of the book. And then we started with the photos. For the first chapter – KID – we included a family tree and some old family photos. We also included quotes from the family throughout the book, which I think makes it really special. I love this page of Gary-isms defined. And if it isn't totally obvious from these pictures, Gary is a very cool guy! . . . . .
(even more pictures here)
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