What does book design have to do with NameThatPlant.net? Just that it’s how I try to make a living!
To look at one of these projects more closely, click a cover image below, then hover the mouse over any page to enlarge it.
Trees, Shrubs, and Vines of Southwest Florida
by Robert A. Hattaway
The diverse mixture of tropical and temperate plants in the 4-county region covered by this book is unique in the US. Tropical trees such as Gumbo Limbo or Tourist Tree coexist with the more temperate American Persimmon, and a proportionally high percentage of the trees have large showy flowers pollinated by animals rather than wind. Included in this book are in-depth feature-by-feature treatments of 165 trees, shrubs, palms, and woody vines, plus brief descriptions and/or illustrations of another 125 woody plants – nearly 300 species in all – as well as over 800 drawings and photographs. Special care is taken throughout to point out diagnostic characters of the species and families covered, to mention similar or related taxa, as well as to provide the reader with a basic framework of botanical knowledge.
Click here to read more.
Haws - A Guide to Hawthorns of the Southeastern United States
by Ron Lance
A product of over 20 years’ work in field, garden, and herbarium study, this book was written to fill a longstanding void in hawthorn understanding for the southeastern U.S. region. Here for the first time, in one complete volume, all significant species and their variations known to occur in this region are collectively presented. Over 720 photographs, 120 drawings and range maps, copious natural histories, descriptions, reference tables and identification keys are used within the book’s 520 pages to guide the recognition and appreciation of all our hawthorns.
For me as a graphic designer, this book’s biggest challenge was in presenting such a large array of complex interwoven information in a visually pleasing, intuitive and accessible format.
Click here to read more.
Round About Greenville
by Pam Shucker (author) & Bill Robertson (photographer)
Hiking buddies Pam Shucker (writer and educator) and Bill Robertson (photographer) united their voices to create Round About Greenville, a book recommending nature as a sanctuary and a source for physical, emotional, and spiritual wellness.
My goal throughout this project was a book that actively invites the reader to peruse both Pam’s writings and Bill’s images, and at the same time includes a graceful juxtaposition of much useful area destination information.
The Wonders of Wandering
by Gillian Newberry
A travelogue.
This travelogue is broken into sections such as Transportation, Landscapes, England's Neolithic Past, the Impressionists, etc. Antique maps and their decorative margins provide a common theme and serve as a visual connection between the different sections.
Collected Poems
by Samuel B. Pratt
If not for the urging of one particular family member, this collection of fine poems “would have remained forever stashed away in an ancient Blue Horse Flexible Notebook....”
Poetry is characterized by an economical use of words, each word being ever-so-carefully chosen. Not surprisingly, that deliberation and restraint carry over into the process of arranging those words onto a page....
Tales I Couldn't Tell Until My Mother Died
by Gillian Newberry
This book could almost be thought of as the second in a series, the first being Tales from a Wandering Mind.
This is the third book which Gill has allowed me to put together for her; we must be getting the hang of working together!
The Dayporch
by Ceille Baird Welch
In the late 1980’s / early 1990’s, the South Carolina State Hospital on Bull Street in Columbia, South Carolina, bowed down to political correctness. Designated in stone in 1871 as the S.C. Lunatic Asylum, the sign and the old buildings were boarded up. Inpatients were moved to smaller residences in their own communities, and the well-meaning powers-that-were generously called the move TLC, Toward Local Care. In the play The Dayporch, three older women are simply moved across campus to a little house, one of several built as temporary homes for the families of resident physicians. Sara Melford, a nurse on her way to retirement, is placed there with them, as a house-mother of sorts, to care for their souls. Enter: Steve Grayson, an off-campus Chaplain. Or is he? Steve Grayson is an opportunist, a con-man come to take advantage, to see what he can get. And his greatest bounty is the hearts of the four hungry women....
Sacred Dust Connecting Us
by Ron Boozer
Sacred Dust Connecting Us explores universal faith questions and challenges thoughtful introspection. Its colorful poignant imagery draws inspiration from scripture, poetry, song lyrics, social issues, and art throughout history. Appropriately its medium of “pastel on a chalkboard” is a metaphor for life’s impermanent and transitory nature: each luminous drawing offered as a prayer then erased and replaced. In the process the aspiration is that, with wonder and humility, we enhance connection to ourselves, our faith community and to our spiritual search for the divine.
This book's design should rightfully be called a collaboration (with Ron — the author/artist — as art director). I think we made a good team!
