Graphic design for books, brochures and magazines

Painting flowers is better than having a real job.

From Wildflowers of the BWCA: “Spring Ephemerals”

This is an online and printed flyer for a hand-hammered copper range hood.

Coppersmith Hoods

A page from our agate book.

Amazing Agates: Agate Features

The first page of our dragonfly quick ID key.

Dragonflies of the Northwoods Quick ID Key

This handy pocket guide dares the Everyman climber to tackle the legendary Eiger North Face, with comprehensive, easy-to-follow, map-like “topos” and concise route-finding advice. On this particular spread, the written description is for the topo on the previous page. Cut out that page and there’s the topo on one side, and its description on the other. Learn more here: http://eigertopo.com

Eigerwand Climbing Guide Page Spread

Lots of product means lots of images and lots of text. There are better tools now but I think this holds up, at least in an “old-timey” way.

Duluth Pack Catalog Page Spread

Based on a horribly low-resolution scan of a 19th century newspaper ad, I matched the typography and recreated all the line art for a large window display in Duluth Trading’s LaCrosse storefront.

John Barnes Ad (for Duluth Trading’s LaCrosse Store)

The “technical” drawing style mixed with other illustration and seen in context.

Duluth Trading Co. Polo Shirt Spread

Elsewhere on this site, there’s a techy, odd illustration of door parts: this is where they ended up, in a brochure for STILEChoice Doors. The greenish illustration on the left shows a typical door with the frame and two panels. The “profile” illustration on the right shows all the varieties these parts come in.

STILEChoice Door Page Spread

My publishing partnership, Kollath+Stensaas Publishing, put out a book on Ferns, authored by Joe Walewski, and this is one of the page spreads. The chart roughly compares the evolution of the various plant types with all lifeforms.

Fern Evolution

A fun project for a really wonderful local restaurant. The bison are locally raised — like every other ingredient for which they can find local sources.

Duluth Grill Cookbook Bison Pot roast

These great folks in Ely were a client for several years: this was the most elegant of many covers, and unlike most, photography-driven.

Wintergreen: 2001 Catalog

This is from a brochure designed for Hallett Dock which runs three facilities in the Duluth-Superior harbor and is in the business of transloading bulk and liquid materials.

Hallett Dock Company Map

Art galleries make for great clients: you get to work with beautiful images for people who just want everything to look elegant and cool.

Sivertson Calendar

Either you have a Frost River article in hand — so you can smell and feel the waxed cotton and leather — or you don’t, in which case it needs to be described to you. There are a lot of words and pictures in the Frost River catalogs. They’re a poor substitute for the thing itself, but until you get a Flight Bag or a Circle Tour Travel Wallet in hand, they’re all we’ve got..

Frost River: 2015 Catalog Page Spread

There were always dynamite images to work with in the Wintergreen catalogs.

Wintergreen Catalog Spread

You may think that graphic design is about making pretty pages (well it is, kind of) but at its heart it’s really about organizing information. This chart page is an example. Is it pretty? Not for me to say. Is it clear? I rather think so.

Minnesota Sea Grant Organization Chart

This is ancient but I’ve always appreciated its design: it visually shows, at a glance, how much these folks have going on.

Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church

Page Design