2020 Michigan Historic Preservation Network's HRCD

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Shortly after the Michigan Historic Preservation Network asked me to design their 2019 annual report (see my Behance project about that design), they asked me if I would also be interested in designing their Historic Resource Council Directory. They are great people to work with, so of course I said yes. This is a 44 page publication (the largest project I have designed since I started freelancing in 2018). Little did I know that while I was working on these two very large projects (their 2019 annual report and this directory) that a world wide pandemic would close pretty much everything, including schools. So my 10 year old son would be home and I would be home schooling him while I was working on these projects. My friends and family kept calling me because they were bored during the lock down. While I had never been busier in my life. My kid passed the 5th grade (he says American History is now his favorite subject) and I was able to deliver these two very large projects on time. I'm very pleased with the way the publications turned out. Here are a few of my designs for the cover. The last image is the final cover. This entire directory can be accessed online at: https://www.mhpn.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/2020-Historic-Resource-Council-Directory.pdf

This was my first design for the cover. Everyone is into Mid-Century Modern at the moment, so I tried to look at the work of Charles and Ray Eames as inspiration. The wooden column is a photo I took in my living room.

The client did not want a black and white photo on the cover (very Eames), but wanted to use a color photo from one of their members instead, which makes sense. This is a mock up that I designed with the photo of Neuman Smith Architecture, the State Savings Bank of Detroit owned by their client Bedrock Detroit. Photographer John D'Angelo.