Leap Day Dreams

Brad reading a poem to the crowd, written at this very location.

Brad leading the crowd down 9th St. after a wonderful launch.

I don’t recall exactly how I ended up becoming a book designer. No real intention on my part - my friend Brad was talking about publishing a book and that he had it all in a google doc. Somehow my brain fast-forwarded to him struggling with layout and trying to get the whole thing to work from document pages. One thing led to another and I sort of ended up forcing my assistance on him. Ooops. I thought we’d have a nice leisurely timeline, easy enough for me to take my fighting knowledge of InDesign and level up, in between client bookings. Then Brad said he wanted to launch on Leap Day, a little over two months from our first conversations. “Uh okay, but maybe we should have a back-up launch date just in case?” We barreled forward, Leap Day was the goal.

What began as a way to help my friend with layout turned into a project I’m really proud of and so happy to have helped across the finish line. Brad threw endless challenges at me- finishing off the font I’d started ages ago, to use for the cover text. Drawings scribbled on cardboard to figure out how to clean up and include in black and white. A SUPER thin spine that I had no idea how to make work. When he got the first proof back we were all surprised to see that the title looked fine when off angle, but was somehow muddy and hard to read if you looked at it straight on. That would NOT do! Tweaking and tweaking and tweaking….

So many strange things I’d never thought to question. Why are there multiple ‘title’ pages in books? (My friend who works in publishing told us it’s a relic from the olden times that protects the title page, still considered normal for hard covers.) Do you have to have author approval to include one (cited) line as an epigraph? (Yes - copyright rules say you do, better to go through the publisher than direct authors, particularly for more famous authors.)

We muddled our way through all of it - learning more, adding more, refining more. The date loomed, our schedules clashed, yet still we found a way to get everything together. A few days before launch, Brad picked up a few hundred copies, printed locally in Gowanus. Success!

Find Me in The Feral Pockets, on sale at Principles.

The one thing that was never in question through the project was Brad’s poetry. I gave him a hard time about quotes, some of the images he wanted, fussy details that I insisted he make a choice on. The thing I never questioned was his work - my goal was to make it so his writing took center stage. If anything, my design work should be invisible, never distracting. I often joke that my job as a video editor is to make it so you never think about what it is that I’ve done. Same thing here. Let the words carry you through. I think we accomplished that goal. Brad keeps telling me I should keep an eye out for more book design requests. It was a fun challenge, but I think I’ll reserve my book-making skills for good friends.

And of course, I had to shoot the event for Brad! These photos are all from the launch event on Leap Day. If you’d like your own copy of his very book of very Gowanusy poems - local show From Here to Sunday has copies for sale in person and online. I think they’re also going to be available at Principles BK in person.

Brad asked some of his compatriots to read from the book at the launch.

A full house at Principles.