Ishkode: A Story of Fire
This particularly special book was created by a collaboration between Evan Larson, a professor in forestry at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, and an indigenous perspective as represented by Nisogaabokwe (Melonee Montano) and illustrator Moira (Miri) Villiard.
By understanding what Evan, Melonee, and Moira imagined, I was able to guide the project choices as I used design to elevate the story and vivid imagery.
Highlights from the Design
“I am so excited to hold a copy in my hands … reception of the work is going to be fantastic!”
Project Reflections
Packed with vivid art and deep meaning, this book followed a unique path from other indigenous stories by combining the cutting-edge Western scientific perspective with generational Indigenous knowledge.
Clearly, this book is about fire—and the environmental benefits of its use in the Northwoods ecosystem, not just its suppression. The subtext, however, comes through more subtly in our use of blueberry blues through the book—the end sheets, the case fabric.
The story centers on the life of an ancient red pine, a species that was common until logging clearcut the forests, ultimately leading to the crowding of other species. Optimistic in its ending, with a return to earlier land management practices, this book was instrumental in making the concept accessible to a new generation.
Practical Production
The actual book project was not without its own challenges.
After I solicited and compared quotes, the team settled on Corporate Graphics for the printing and binding—I’ve worked with them for several projects in the past, and their work has always been solid.
Although I had created a preliminary text-only layout, we ended up iterating on several of the images, or more often than not, I ended up tweaking things myself.
This included creating eight pages of new art for the book—the title page and back matter of the book. I created these additional images using elements from the existing interior artwork. This kept the feel consistent from cover to cover.
I’m particularly pleased with the opening spread, a “flashback” scene that supported the added foreword and allowed splitting the excessively long opening page of text. By repurposing trees of the appropriate species, I could preface the visuals by showing the “birth” of the tree that would become the throughline of the story.
“Long, long ago,” indeed.
“I will not be surprised if we work on another project in the future—thank you again for your careful stewardship of this project!”
