At school I took a Photo 1 class, required for my degree, and I was pretty terrible at it. I actually enjoyed the darkroom development process, but I remain a poor photographer to this day. I don't feature much photography on this site, but it's a pretty valuable skill and one I would like to develop more. In order to better document my work I decided to purchase a new Canon T2i and try it out on some recently completed projects. Back in April I designed a masthead for The University of Oklahoma's Journal of Global Affairs, and recently received the completed book. Over the summer Texas Christian University Press hired me to lay out a novel by Texas author Tom Hardy: Slow Moving Dreams. When they arrived in the mail it provided the perfect opportunity to try out the new camera and start honing my skills.

I don't do much book layout work. The nature of page by page layout spread over hundreds of pages doesn't appeal to me as much as a series of unique layouts for a shorter publication, but the cover design is usually exciting enough to me to justify laying out a complete book, especially if the cover design will help inspire the interior.

Journal of Global Affairs

This project actually turned out better than I had hoped. The two-tones of grey throughout the book helped separate the various levels of information within each article, and the references and graphs read clearly at the end.

Slow Moving Dreams

The cover of this novel was supposed to romanticize the stark nature of West Texas. Some would argue that the miles of flat desert plains that roll into small mountains need no assistance being camera ready, but for those that are not familiar with the spacious grandeur, I wanted to lend an air of fond familiarity.

Slow Moving Dreams: Cover Design

And there you go. My first attempt at photography posted on this site: terrible.