20. CHRONICLE BOOKS
“As a designer, I was attracted to his work,” says designer Brett MacFadden
of illustrator and comic book writer Adrian Tomine, “because the line
quality is really graphic, the colors are beautiful, and because I’d been a
fan of his books, I felt I understood his design aesthetic.” When it came to
creating a series of postcards, “mostly the design was his art, so the biggest
job was creating a consistent package for his work,” MacFadden notes.
There were some technical complications, as well. “The way
Adrian produces the art is that he draws the outline, scans it in
and adds layers for color and shadows in the computer, which
are then stacked in QuarkXPress for output,” according to the
designer. “For every postcard in the Optic Nerve series, each layer
had to be scaled down to fit, even those that started as posters,
while maintaining registration. Trying to figure out mathematically
how far down each needed to go was a challenge.” Of course,
designing for a designer presents another kind of challenge.
“A lot of the projects we work on at Chronicle, [the book
designer] is the expert, aesthetically,” says MacFadden. “When
you’re dealing with someone you admire who has strong skills,
that creates a shift in that relationship and you look to them for
expertise as well.”
Laurel Saville
Chronicle Books
DESIGNER: Brett MacFadden
ILLUSTRATOR: Adrian Tomine
CONTACT: www.chroniclebooks.com