Creative Brief
Crafted Product
Goal
With National Geographic photojournalist Ted Spiegel, I’ve designed a 300-page ebook that’s a richly descriptive memoir of Spiegel’s career. Spiegel tells a vivid story about how every good photograph is the yield of ‘pre-search.’ This is a low cost book for students.
- Share stories and lessons from six decades of work by National Geographic Magazine photojournalist Ted Spiegel with college students.
- Make this memoir a book in digital and print form. The digital book would be an open-access or low-cost resource for college students.
- Impart the big idea that to discover the right place and right time for a storytelling photo, you must do pre-search. Most good storytelling photos are the yield of pre-search.
- Make this book a reading experience, not just a photo book. The text evokes the sensations of being there, filling in context around the photos.
- Design for honesty and authenticity. That means the design should be mostly invisible, to let the writing and the photos shine.
Role
- Ted Spiegel: Text and photos
- Nina Guido: Design intern
- Anne Galperin, Associate Professor of Graphic Design, SUNY New Paltz: Book design advisor
- Numerous copyeditors: Ted's friends
Process
Discovery
Observations
It is a former library, complete with shelves, stacks, and other mid-20th Century library details. I was able to get a collection of these magazines for our graphic design studio with the promise to keep them safe.
More importantly, I met Ted and we became fast friends. It turned out that we would become near neighbors too.
Ted is the most interesting person I have ever met and an engaging storyteller. I was surprised to learn that he could remember the context around his photos in vivid detail, and he kept records around them.
He also owned all of his photos along with the National Geographic Image Collection. Ted was making a book in Microsoft Word, dedicated to his grandchildren. I volunteered to work with Ted to design a professional quality book that he could share with anyone who wants to learn the untold story behind so many iconic storytelling photos. A part of the Discovery process, and aware that I've never designed an entire book before, I've reviewed photo books and consulted with book designers, including Professor Anne Galperin and David Whitmore, former head of Design at National Geographic Magazine. Art books reference:
Here are some articles about this surprise connection:
Not only does this show how 'anything can turn into anything,' to paraphrase a comment one of my students recently made. It also shows the promise of the digital book as a memoir, which can link to or integrate music, sound, interactive maps and timelines, and film.
- 100% of the pictures are viewed
- 93% of the captions are read
- 10% of the text is read
For this reason, we decided not to use captions for most of the photos. We wanted the memoir to be read, not just scanned.
I did make some very rough napkin sketches—or rather, doodles—to try and convince Ted to do a cover shoot. We could make a cover that would show Ted at his light table.
Ted's hands could lightly hover over the prints of the photos, organically arranged in a bowl of light on the table. His hands could remind readers of a piano player about to touch the keys.
Concepts → Blueprint
Approach
Cover ideas
