Confessions of a Not-So-Supermodel Book Cover

The author wrote this to the EveryGirl. Pageant dress, sure. But cut it with the heels. The real and the fake, fighting each other. We coordinated this photoshoot in (shhhh…) our bathroom in San Francisco!

CLIENT
Youth Specialties (2007)

  • Quiet, pure tunes in a chaotic world. This needed some abstract tied in between raw texture and harsh characters.
  • Zuberance, a Silicon-Valley-based social media ROI firm, asked us to redesign their blog. We created a custom theme that could use different widgets…and style them on our own terms! They’re quite happy with it.
  • These folks wanted to showcase their work around the world. We designed a strong logo. Then we encouraged them to let the images tell the story and lead the way. We designed a WordPress-driven website that’s simple and powerful, with an interactive map and dynamic content.
  • Shane Clairborne, et al. wrote a new book and they wanted a website that could accompany it, giving a day-by-day of their calendar they created with the book. We designed and built a site for them that would automatically cycle through a year’s worth of content.
  • Lindy came to us because she wanted a fresh look, something that played off our organic strengths. As with all our websites, we created a WordPress-managed website with a custom theme we created from scratch.
  • The good folks at TWOTP wanted a sort of sub-brand. We helped with name choice and gave it a twist for their logo. Then we took a WordPress template and tweaked it extensively for their needs. Since WordPress is such a simple and powerful CMS, they handle all their content now.
  • Ha.
  • We wanted to help these good folks tell their story…of their family, their beautiful property, their rich history on the California coast. We first helped them think through their brand, establish a solid logo and then flow that emotion into a functional and captivating website.
  • We worked with these guys a couple years back, setting them up with a killer logo that articulated their ethos. For the launch of their new film, DROP, they wanted a site redesign, so we offered them this. Larger-than-life and ready to go.
  • Thanks to Bob for passing this along to us. I’m sure Ian will appreciate this as well.
  • We have been designing book covers for some time now…what, maybe 5 ot 6 years? It feels like we’ve been at it for a while anyway. If you’re a designer, you know the process. And if you’re not, keep reading and I’ll fill you in. It goes something like this… Publisher gives us an idea [...]
  • These guys were great! We designed this to reflect the fluidity of cognitive and behavioral shifts. Clean, but urban.
  • This small eclectic group of folks wanted something to articulate their values of simplicity, rootedness, sustainability, and rest. This is what we came up with.
  • Some friends are raising funds for the recent tragedy in Haiti. Go here to purchase a shirt. All work was pro-bono and 100% of proceeds to directly to orphanages in Haiti. We cut a lino block of a heart and paired it with bold text. An attempt to remind. An attempt to make a statement.
  • This issue dealt with prayer, so we thought of calling on color to help us interpret this theme. We recalled the prayer flags we see throughout Portland and their vibrant color. Instead of taking a hyper-textured approach (what we’ve done with a good deal of this magazine), we kept this issue clean, simply using smoke [...]
  • A simple-to-use website with an interactive map. We tried to capture the fantasy-fiction elements of the book in our design.
  • We designed the whole package for these guys…talking through branding, designing a logo, building a website, and creating stationary. The logo represents the multi-faceted dimension of the relational community. And it offers some dynamics in that the logo color/tone will change each season to show that they are rooted in some rhythm larger than their [...]
  • We’re proud to pimp our latest project, though this project has just begun in some ways… Introducing Remy Sharp, weighing in at 9.5 lbs, arriving safely at 4.04am (error not found) on 11/07/09. Cyber-stalk him here.
  • We’ve always been word of mouth, never doing any sort of advertising, and we like it that way…generally. But when our friends decided to launch a new magazine (which is so amazingly beautiful and well thought-through), we thought we’d “support” them by taking out some ad space. It looks great in the issue, seated across [...]
  • Ayuda hired us to assist them with their annual report for their donors. Being a non-profit organization in a low-income neighborhood, they really wanted to show their donors how important their support was. We helped them to tell this through strong images and minimal text. It was printed as an untreated 8.5×5.5 booklet.
  • Here’s an excerpt we wrote for the introduction… Each time we put together an issue of CONSP!RE, we dream about how we can create a visual environment to best receive these gifts of words and image. For this issue, we connected concepts of community with trees and bacteria. The thought of trees being rooted in [...]
  • Beauty…real beauty…growing out of the humus of human existence. The clutter, the identity-shifting, the gnawing hope, the…normal. That’s what this book is about. Reclaiming the everyday as significant. Beauty growing from mundane. This is the first offereing from Swerve Press, whose website we also built.
  • This emerging faith community was trying to find a way to articulate that they’re a dynamic community, trying to move with the seasons (shown in the seasonally-shifting logo) and trying to be something more than just a place where people merely “talk about God”. They’re about action, life, and relationships. We built each page so [...]
  • …has been such a great summer. One of the many things we’ve been doing are these HOMESPUN CONCERTS. Wow, what a blast. We have one more left if you plan to be in Portland. Aug 8th!
  • This was a fun project for us. The act of promoting and deconstructing revolution in the same few pages. 56 pages of grit, blood, and reflection. This is the second issue we have designed and laid-out for this quarterly magazine.
  • This was a fun project to work on, dreaming up ways to connect food and earth. These good folks attempt to help people rethink their food–where it comes from, how it’s been cared for, and what that means to the greater world. So we tried our best to show dirt, plants, and table-ready food.
  • This organization is really just a network of people, so we tried to illustrate that as a circle or chain sort of icon. One letter flowing into the next.
  • Concepting a photo shoot that could articulate the idea of this book was a fun challenge. The author wanted to clearly convey the idea that we must move beyond “speeching” at each other to a more conversational approach.
  • Drawing from the ancient Book of Common Prayer, we harkened back to older times that still could mean something on our own postmodern era.
  • Ah, the akward years. Some of us never grow out of them, but all of us hope to. Nothing like old pictures/stories to drop you off you pedastal!
  • We designed this logo for this Santa Cruz-based photographer of children and family. They wanted something playful and memorable.
  • We tried to show the fragility of the artist here. Pen and ink with visions a-whirling.
  • When these guys called us, I knew we’d all work together quite well. They wanted to put together a publishing line that would focus on the off-beat spiritual path. The idea of a side-winder-like path instead of a direct line seems to match most of our profiles in reality. They wanted a simple website they [...]
  • After designing the book Jesus For President, we were contacted to draw up a tour card for promoting their across-the-nation odyssey. We pulled from an image we had intended to use for the original book cover to make this card pop.
  • A bird with a broken foot. Sure it’s still a bird, but how does it do what it’s meant to do…fly? This book shares the stories of youth struggling with their scars.
  • These longtime clients (formerly CYFM) contacted us when they were ready to re-brand themselves as the Fuller Youth Institute. We did the whole package for them, concepting brand ideas, creating a lasting logo, working that into a hyper-functional website, drafting up printed materials and an e-newsletter campaign.
  • An organic rock-n-roll band from Orange County, Everyday Collision writes songs telling of the beauty and complexity of creation. We designed the album to visually communicate that very thing.
  • This is a quarterly publication that we’re designing. It’s been wonderful and challenging, pulling content from all across the globe, mashing it up around a common theme, and then creating a sort of cohesive lay0ut to frame the stories in. This was our first attempt. 52 pages of winter-turn-spring.
  • This cover was begun with Holly’s art piece UNFOUND SIMPLICITY from her WITHOUT THE SPACE WITHIN series. It was inspired by the same things that inspired this album, so it just made sense. It’s like we were riffing on the same theme/experience in different mediums.
  • Take an earthy-sounding album with a grassroots audience. How do you package it to be consistent with the content? Well, we cut lino blocks, had stamps made, and ordered some recycled disc jackets. Then we hand-pressed each disc to make each one unique.
  • In an attempt to show the transition from one paradigm to another, we chose to use a combination of photography and illustration. Sewing two fabrics together, we were able to imply the content of the book.