DJB Design / Book Design

P O R T F O L I O

editorial

book design

editorial book design

Spanish New Orleans and the Caribbean La Nueva Orleans y el Caribe españoles Ask: Design a 175-page, bilingual catalog book to support a joint

exhibition between The New Orleans Historic Collection and the Spain Arts and Culture commission.

Tools: Adobe Creative Suite Deliverables: Design for a hardback, jacketed book with endpapers;

design for the intro wall to the exhibition and text panels in the room.

Timeline: 2 years (the Covid-19 pandemic twice delayed the opening of the exhibition)

Most attribute New Orleans’s cultural references to the French but the period of Spanish governance (1762–1803) had a massive impact on

the city. The French Quarter isn’t so French when it comes to a lot of the

architecture and infrastructure. The New Orleans Historic Collection hired DJB Design to design a bilingual catalog to accompany a joint exhibition with Spain at the Collection. Twice delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic, the book and exhibition finally arrived in 2022.

The book is dense with type with myriad essays and lists of items

featured in the exhibition but I found ways to take unique decorative

details to use as cohesive design bits throughout the book. For example, borders weren’t simply drawn but borrowed from the watercolor and ink

maps done by cartographers of the time. Section separators used small portions of the famous iron work of the Pontabla at Jackson Square.

Embellishments from documents of the day dressed up a chapter’s first page. Designing a book in English and Spanish had its fair number of challenges but the result is a stunning addition to any library.

PORT FOL I O

2

editorial book design

PORT FOL I O

3

editorial book design

C H A P T E R

T W O

HEAVEN CAN WAIT

Through the White Door

J

anie Queen stood in stark contrast to the children of Romania. In 1996, at age 4, Janie became one of the first children in the world to begin taking ARVs to control her HIV and had literally never been sick since, not even a cold.

Janie had contracted HIV from the drug-addicted, mentally ill mother who abandoned her

soon after birth. Sandra and Michael Queen fostered and then adopted Janie into their large family, with the hope they could provide her with a loving home for as long as she lived.

Instead, the Queens changed the course of Janie’s life, and the lives of countless other

For a handful of wonderful years at the Houston Chronicle, I shared a

children, when they enrolled her in a drug trial at Texas Children’s Hospital. This trial tested adult formulations of ARVs on children to find optimal dosages and track side effects. Later, Janie starred in a video used all over the world to show other children how to take their antiretroviral medications.

If Janie had been born even two or three years earlier, there would have been no drugs available

cubicle with photojournalist Smiley Pool. I have worked with so many

to save her life. Instead, Janie thrived, living a life like any other little girl full of school, family, friends, and dress up.

1999 | SAN ANGELO, TEXAS

incredible photographers but Smiley is my favorite. And he is the best.

Janie Queen plays dress-up with her sister, Fiance.

“My mother painted me a picture with words in my mind when we were talking about keeping her. She told me there’s a beautiful little playhouse in heaven and God

Smiley always had the best stories from his assignments over the years.

would be there watching over her, and if she was a little girl and she passed away that that’s where she would be. … We hoped that she would make it to kindergarten.”

— Sandra Queen

One he often spoke of was a photo assignment he got in 1996 to travel with

38

39

Dr. Mark Kline to Romania, the inspiration for which Kline and and others

would eventually launch the Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative.

Long after the newspapers moved on from long-form stories and projects of AIDS coverage, Smiley stayed with the story. Smiley has spent decades

Far outside a small town, a dirt road wound through miles of cultivated

— yes, decades — on multiple continents photographing the stories of

fields. Where the road ended stood an old hunting lodge that once belonged to a wealthy family. By 1999, the decrepit Camin Spital, a residential institution, housed more than 80 children deemed “irrecuperable” by their government.

Kline’s team evaluated the children’s health and tested everyone for HIV. Only

those who faced the AIDS crisis head on. You can read more about his

one child tested positive for HIV, but infected wounds, severely stunted growth, and diarrhea were rampant.

As the medical team drove away from their day at Cezieni, the conversation focused on the smells, sounds, and horrors of the day. “I don’t

journey in this article by my friend Sam Byrd.

want to think about what it’s like there at night,” nurse Nancy Calles said.

“It’s a real-life house of horrors. HIV is the least of their worries.”

— Dr. Mark Kline

One evening in our cubicle, as he was editing photos, he said, “I guess at some point, this should probably be a book. Would you be interested in

2009 | BUCHAREST, ROMANIA

2013 | BUCHAREST, ROMANIA

With Nicu complaining of abdominal pains, Steven Doyle, a registered nurse, steps away from a party to check on him.

Mary Veal, a social worker who worked with Nicu for years, implores him to take to his meds, stressing, “Your daughter needs a father.”

1999 | CEZIENI, ROMANIA

Night falls on the Camin Spital in Cezieni, Romania.

172

173 25

designing it?” Of course my answer was yes. When that call came in 2019, I was thrilled the world would get to experience this story.

Through the White Door is a book that belongs on every coffee table.

C H A P T E R

Paired with Smiley’s beautiful photographs is the emotionally raw text by

ALL GROWN UP

the gifted and wonderful Jessica Johns Pool. On more than one occasion

B

my eyes pooled with tears as I put the words and photos together. Her

ecause HIV impacts the entire body, medical specialists treat the whole person. If a patient is malnourished, and battling tuberculosis or malaria or depression, those conditions must be treated too. Thus, BIPAI’s original focus to treat HIV in children gradually developed into a comprehensive

model to deliver world-class health care in resource-limited settings to children and their families.

symphonic prose is an unsung star of this book.

This model has now been replicated all over the world, with programs focused on obstetrics and gynecology, malnutrition, tuberculosis, cardiology, emergency medicine, sickle cell, and pediatric cancer. In some countries, they deliver food and immunizations to at-risk children and their mothers. In others, they conduct research and teach at medical schools, training the next generation of doctors and nurses.

Regardless of where they operate, they leave hope in their wake.

I would ask you to consider ordering a copy for you or a friend. It’s a

“ The government and people of Botswana will remain forever grateful for your generous response. … When we thought all else was lost, your generosity, your humanity, your assistance among others brought smiles to many of our families.”

stunning work of art. All profits from the book go to HIV/AIDS charities. With proposed cuts to HIV/AIDS funding in the U.S. and to organizations who

S E V E N

— President Mokgweetsi Masisi of the Republic of Botswana, speaking at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, Texas, September 20, 2018.

2015 | MASERU, LESOTHO 176

As members of the Teen Club in Lesotho aged out, they formed a new group called Wise Youth that advocates for positive living.

177

help fight the disease, abroad, this is an opportunity to help.

PORT FOL I O

4

editorial book design

Through the White Door Ask: Design a 212-page hardbound coffee table book.

Tools: Adobe Creative Suite Deliverables: Print-ready files for digital

and offset printings for cover, endpapers, book main; marketing materials for events related to book release

Timeline: Four months, two printings

PORT FOL I O

5

editorial book design

PORT FOL I O

6

editorial book design

300 for 300: People Who Made New Orleans, New Orleans Ask: Design a 312-page hardbound coffee table

book with profiles of 300 notable New Orleanians to commemorate the tricentennial of the city. Profiles of each person had been running in The Times-

Picayune. The book came after the series in time for the end of the series.

Tools: Adobe Creative Suite Deliverables: Print-ready files for offset printing

for jacket, cover, endpapers, book main; marketing materials for events related to book release Timeline: One month

PORT FOL I O

7