When I became a book designer, back in the mid-eighties, I started working at Little, Brown & Company, on Boston's historic Beacon Hill, in a beautiful old Federal building on top of the hill, near the gold-capped dome of the capital. I lived out in Cambridge, and rode my bike into work most days. The... Continue Reading →
On the process of book cover design, my love of designing poetry, and the challenges of nailing a good cover ... For the design of the cover of David's Inferno, I wanted to create a cover that might cause people to react—my hope (?) is that they would feel uneasy with the lack of a... Continue Reading →
Let's see: I was an English major in college, which was actually a good thing! I have a lifelong love affair with books and a book as an object, not a digital ball of light or touch-screen smooth and swiped, or a website (though I do website design and ePub books that are editorially and... Continue Reading →
When a manuscript of a book to be published comes across my desk, there is always a sense of anticipation. My job, as book designer, is one that I still relish even after 25 years. When I started out at David R. Godine, and later at Little, Brown/Atlantic Monthly Press, the very first list of... Continue Reading →
Writer David Blistein and I have known each other longer than we can remember. Really! Turns out we grew up around the corner from each other in Providence, RI. But we didn’t actually meet until we both found ourselves living in Brattleboro, Vermont during the 1990s. So it was a personal as well as professional... Continue Reading →
When the author and publisher, Cheryl Wilfong, came to visit me in my office one fine spring morning, her book was originally called "Buddhist in the Garden" which aptly describes her life and her integrity. I worked with Cheryl to create a book that reflected her work and teaching—her own path as a Buddhist as... Continue Reading →
one, are the days of letterpress; however, I see a resurgence, as evidenced by the recent anniversary of the publishing house, Godine, and the celebratory show marking the occasion at the Grolier Club in NY. It is the book/publications designer’s challenge to draw from the vast machinery and computer hardware a product of precision and... Continue Reading →
Here is the final book cover for Father Dirt. In Mihaela Moscaliuc's world, there is a dictator, folk medicine, women and children, and a terrible beauty (to paraphrase Yeats). The poems are strong and powerful and deal with a childhood in Romania and the poet has worked with orphans. i just love working for Alice... Continue Reading →
Interior pages and samples of recent work
Welcome to our first post. I attended the Book Expo America in New York recently, and made a lot of contacts for my firm's design and publications business. A nice surprise to find that publishers seemed interested in hearing about what we are doing at our small Vermont firm. Among our most recent projects is... Continue Reading →
Dede Cummings 