77. SIBLEY PETEET DESIGN, AUSTIN
The Commission of 125 is a diverse body of leaders that met to provide strategic recommendations to guide the future of the University of Texas. UT has conducted such an endeavor at 25-year intervals. Sibley Peteet Design created an elegant volume that presents the current Commission’s report. “We all agreed it should be as timeless as possible, and perhaps lean toward a fine art sensitivity, hence the size, the hard cover, the paper choices, and the perfect binding, as well as the photography solution,” explains creative director Rex Peteet.

The hardbound version, printed in a limited run, was used as VIP gifts, while a soft-cover version was available to the general public. There was a real challenge in both the design and production due to the headshots of varying quality, resolution, and composition, of the 218 commissioners.

Each image was reworked with the background removed, a consistent gradient added and then separated as four-color quadratones, providing continuity with the beautiful fine art images of the university elsewhere in the book. “The project was quite an odyssey, and it reflects a close partnership between client and design group. We spent a lot of time, had a lot of fun, and I had great respect for the work of the design team,” comments Geoffrey Leavenworth, University of Texas Office of the President.
Terry Lee Stone