Essays, Photographs, and Astrology Charts
Author Peter Doughty walks a path that is equally intriguing and engaging in his new book, Scenes from a Tapestry. Based on writings of his astroplethorama blog, Peter’s essays flow between politics and climate concerns, punctuated by local weather reactions and unified through his research into astro-meteorology.
This project presented me with the opportunity to work with an author who was willing to share his vision and ideas, while also giving me room to explore and visualize those ideas.
“You make my thoughts look good. Thank you very much.”
Development Process
Twelve beautiful photos by the author, a letterpress broadside for typographic inspiration, combined with an engaging narrative, made me realize I needed a page layout and integrated cover and title page design that reflected this style.
After some initial background research, Peter and I met face-to-face to discuss the project, his objectives, and timeline.
I prepared a round of concept proofs based on those discussions, and we quickly focused in on one cover design based on Peter’s preferences. In the end, we were able to incorporate textual elements from a letterpress broadside Peter had created in anticipation of this project, digitally matching the texture for the other textual elements, and incorporating a public domain photograph (with a few digital additions).
Interior Layout
The interior design was styled to match the aesthetic of the cover, matching the ancient-modern balance of Peter’s writings. Additional digital work was done to enhance the relatively low-resolution astrological charts, bringing them to an acceptably good level for print.
Arranged in two primary parts, with a total of 40 chapters, most essays opened with thoughts of the day, followed by a more critical astrological analysis of events.
To separate these two voices, I created a subtly astro-inspired divider line. Customized divider lines is something I love to do with print books.
Results
Featuring a color cover design and a 272-page black-and-white interior, complete with a fully integrated table of contents, table of photos, bibliography, and index, made the book complete. And in just under two months from first contact to finished books, with the bulk of the production design work taking place over three weeks. A challenging timeframe, but one I was glad we were able to meet.
