I’ve spent the past year sailing the high seas and exploring exotic influences. Taking on many of Jon’s duties at Hard Press Editions I completed Exotica by Jason Jacques, and Frank Vining Smith, Maritime Painting in the 20th Century by James Craig. The design and related production efforts (aka “cat herding”) involved in producing these two books ate my life in 2010 (nearly to the exclusion of anything else, as my friends can attest). In the end it feels like it was worth the effort and I’ll attach sample pages as PDFs when I get a chance if you’d like to judge for yourself, the covers are pictured below.
front cover design for Exotica by Michelle Quigley
front cover design for Frank Vining Smith by Michelle Quigley
This past weekend I lost a friend and colleague Jon Gams, founder of Hard Press Editions, and the guy who gave me the opportunity to work on three of my favorite things combined—art, books, and design. Even as we make plans to move forward with the projects he spearheaded it still feels unreal. Some ends come as a closing chapter summing up a story in a satisfying if sad conclusion, but this was too sudden, too abrupt, and feels incomplete. I don’t even know what I’m feeling. While we worked together the past couple of years, and talked almost daily, there’s many, many people who have more right to call him a friend. I’m looking forward to meeting some of them at the memorial service tomorrow. They have memories to share that may not make this loss any less, but will help make his story complete and maybe help me feel a little more whole.
by Misha
Last weekend Kit and I had the opportunity to go on a photo safari at the most elegant BBQ ever in Southfield MA. Jeremy and Emily Stanton plan to open a butcher shop featuring organic and locally raised meat and poultry. The outdoor feast was a fundraiser for the project which they hope to launch by 2010. Rural Intelligence chose a few of the boatload of images we shot to illustrate the story.
I just looked over the F&Gs of the Mike Glier book Along a Lomg Line and I’m so excited. The printed, unbound pages we received yesterday represent the last stage of proofing. After months pouring over digital color proofs tweaking and correcting color it’s thrilling to finally see these in printed form. Digital proofs are to print what print is to standing in front of a painting. There’s a depth and intensity to layers of ink on paper to which a digital proof just can’t compare. We’ll have the books in hand October 15th but if you’d like to preview it you can visit Hard Press Editions or Along a Long Line.
by Misha
The first of four illustrations commissioned by Seven Salon Spa is at last complete. This is undoubtably the most complex piece I’ve ever done in Adobe Illustrator, but boy was it fun to get back into the drawing-zone again.
