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Art directing book projects: there’s nothing like it. Last week I went to the first of two press checks with my team for a project that’s now in the home stretch: 35 Truths: Lessons from the Front Lines of Executive Coaching, by Clyde C. Lowstuter. On press, we saw how our work was coming together with the concept we chose, the paper we specified, the photography direction we landed on, and the story we wanted to tell - a process that began eight months ago, with careful planning and research. 

I love working with talented designers, and I learn from them all the time. It’s great to see how they make their mark by sharing their creative POV on any given project. I enjoy the process, the problem solving, and the continuous learning that happens along the way. Working with a print vendor who kind of freaks out every time there’s a potential issue is oddly comforting because you know they have your back and want the project to be as successful as you do.

I also had the chance to do quite a bit of photo editing for this book. The images were instrumental in revealing every nuance for each hard-earned lesson shared by the book’s author. It was a challenging effort, and there were times I thought I couldn’t keep going. The hours I spent poring through batches of images…photo after photo after photo…was exhausting and energizing at the same time.

Seeing the transformation from pixels on screen to ink on paper never gets old. Once those pixels hit the substrate and it all starts to feel like a “real thing,” we know we’ve got an object that will be held in someone’s hands and absorbed in a very analogue sort of way…which is refreshing since I spend most of my time immersed in technology.


Shout out to designers Natalia Bulsza-Gottschalk and John Pfleeger for bringing their talents to 35 Truths: Lessons from the Front Lines of Executive Coaching, authored by Clyde C. Lowstuter, MCC, President and CEO of Robertson Lowstuter.

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