Graphic Design Solutions

Robin Landa



Great book! It is the best book out there on design and the design process. Josh Chen from Chen Design Associates did a really great cover and interior design.

Communication Arts Design Annual 2010

Kinda cool. Red Squrrel logo got into the CA Design Annual this year.

A book within a book. From the brief: SylviaWeisler is under contract with a small publisher to write a non-fiction book about personals advertising. . She focuses on the middle-aged and older group who utilize print media rather than on the “too vast territory” of twenty-somethings and the Internet. Some of the characters remain interviewees—material for Sylvia’s book; others, however, enter the author’s private life and become enmeshed in the plot.

From the brief continued: "There is a character in the book called Gladwell Alcox, a spoof of Malcolm Gladwell. We thought we should play this up on the cover, as if the book were a non-fiction book on the writing of personals. We saw a banner running across the bottom corner saying something like 'With a Foreword by Gladwell Alcox' or 'Foreword by Gladwell Alcox'

Sometimes I really like getting a clear directive and then seeing what I can do with it. I know I have said this before but I also like taking a hackneyed visual symbol like an arrow through a heart and seeing if there could still be a new way of doing it.

One more for the Salon des refusés

Wasn't the right approach for this book in the end but still kind of intriguing.

This cover took more than a couple of attempts to get it finalized. The first concept made it into the catalogue with reservations from the authors. The second was good to go right up until the cover was about to be sent to printer when it hit a snag as well. I had to come up with something new right away and thought this could work. I went with a strictly graphic approach but it wasn't coming together. Adding the shadows made it come to life as well as the gloss lamination which gives it a bit of extra punch.

And another maple leaf. I did this a while back and it is just going into production now.

Book Review illustration

Illustration for New York Times Sunday Book Review