It's alright, Ma; I'm only designing

Here's a cover I did for the University of Minnesota Press. First published in 1971, the book is about author Toby Thompson's trip to Hibbing, Minnesota, to find the "real Dylan." Thompson even strikes up a romance with Dylan's old girlfriend, the inspiration for "Girl from the North Country." The original 1971 cover was done by none other than Milton Glaser. So many Dylan books have a photo on the cover, that I wanted to follow Uncle Miltie's example and do an illustrative treatment. I really like this illustration, and I also liked the Bob Dylan logo I created in the lower left: a play off the old Columbia Records logo, cut in half to form a B and a D. I think Mr. Thompson liked the cover, but I'm not sure anyone else did.

RIP Will Powers

I just heard the stunning news of Will Powers untimely passing. Will was the book design/typography guru at the Minnesota Historical Society Press. He was very active in the book design community, as well as the greater design/ad community at large. Will had a passion for good design, and the keen eye of a typographer who was brought up in the age of hot metal type and segued easily into the computer age, retaining the integrity of his work. Will was a friendly, giving, compassionate guy with a great sense of humor, who knew a lot of people in the design world. I'm sure they will all miss him as much as I. He was truly one of the greats.

I Heart CA

A hearty shout-out to the fine folks at Communication Arts for choosing the above BND cover for inclusion in the upcoming CA Design Annual. The Annual comes out in November, so Joe Bob says check it out. The cover is for a book published by Milkweed Editions, and features darkly satiric short stories by local author J.C. Hallman. It's gotten great reviews, so make it a point to add it to your Fall reading list.

Days of Future Passed

I have a huge respect for the great designers of the past; they paved the way for those of us making a living in this zany industry. Much of that work still feels fresh and vital today. So I decided to do a poster series honoring some of my design heroes. The first one is dedicated to the work of Charles and Ray Eames.

If you're happy and you know it, raise your hand…

I love the graphic quality of the human hand. On an old M*A*S*H episode in the 70s, Hawkeye ruminated on the wonder of the hand, from a physiological point of view. Great designers have used the hand as a design element time and again; the Modernists of the 40s and 50s (like Will Burtin and Lester Beall) in particular made great use of the hand form. Today, designers like Sharon Werner, Felix Sockwell, and the Wink boys have used the stylized hand to great effect.

The two images above are fairly recent BND pieces: the Vote poster was submitted to the AIGA for the 2008 election season, and was one of 12 selected (out of 300) for publication and national distribution. The book cover was done for Penn State University Press, for a book of essays on Brown v. the Board of Education.

Is this thing on?

Okay, it looks like this whole Intertubes thing is going to catch on, so I thought I'd join the kids in a little Weblogging, or "blogging" as we like to call it. Pretty soon, I'll have to start Tweeting. ZOMG!

Anyway, hope to post new work and general thoughts on design and other stuff. Check back for updates on a semi-irregular basis.