How to get featured in the best darn graphic design books: Interview with Crescent Hill Books

Image Courtesy, Crescent Hill Books

If your house were on fire and you could only save a few items, what would they be? For me (assuming my husband, cat, and laptop were out of harms way) it would have to be my favorite collection of graphic design books. And what if by chance, you happen to come into a whole bunch of money? How would you spend it? For me, (assuming my husband, cat, and laptop were all in good health) it would have to be – more graphic design books, please!

For the newbie designer and seasoned professional alike, graphic design books offer a wealth of knowledge, fantastic inspiration, and oodles of amazing eye candy (not to mention awesome PR for the designer whose work is featured). In fact, I don’t know a single graphic designer who hasn’t at one point in their career fantasized about having their own work reproduced in one of those publications.

So how exactly does one go about getting into some of the best darn graphic design books on the market today, like the wildly successful Big Book of Logos series or The American Corporate Identity annuals? Nancy Heinonen, Publications Director of Crescent Hill Books (and the team responsible for producing those aforementioned titles and a ton more goodies) helps shed some light on the subject, and even offers some juicy tips on how to bring your own design book ideas to fruition. Read on!

Image Courtesy, Crescent Hill Books

What is your title and can you describe a typical day for you?
My title is Publications Director and that involves anything from concept development for new books, to writing proposals, to contract negotiations with authors and publishers, budget planning, and even arranging international shipping once books are printed.

A typical day would involve talking to freelance designers or copy editors about a new or current project, creating a detailed production schedule to keep everyone on track, arranging samples from my printer, chasing design firms for hi-res images, sending sample cover designs to publishers and creating our new blog. Basically, I think of my job as orchestra conductor. I simply stand at the front of the line and give everyone from authors to designers to printers their cue as to when to begin.

What was your role in seeing Crescent Hill Books come to fruition?
For six years, I worked as a print production manager for my sister company, Four Colour Print Group, which specializes in 4c book printing. One day, I started to think about where I wanted to be in five years. I made a list describing my dream job. When I was done, I realized I’d perfectly described a book producer. I then put a basic business plan together and presented it to my boss.

Luckily for me, he has an entrepreneurial spirit and said ‘yes’. He then did an amazing thing: he hired someone to take over my print production duties to allow me the freedom to start this new company. That was almost three years ago and I absolutely have my dream job now.

What are some popular books Crescent Hill Books has produced?
Two books immediately come to mind: Really Good Logos, Explained (May, 2008) is a book I produced for Rockport Publishers. It’s a logo book with a ‘catch’: I gathered four top designers and asked them to critique 500 logos, but here’s the catch: each critique had to be less than six sentences. This forced the authors to be extremely specific with their comments. The result is a very precise inspection of logos that is incredibly educational. These authors point out things within the logos that are truly eye-opening. I love this book for many reasons. It has no fluff, no pretentious ‘designer-speak’ and it gave me the opportunity to work with California designer, Margo Chase who served as one of the authors. (When Margo said ‘yes’ to this project, I felt like a first-time movie producer who’d just signed Meryl Streep!) Shameless bragging: The cover design for this book just won a silver National ADDY Award.

The second book is Market Smart (May 2009), recently published by Collins Design, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. It has a very rare premise: it focuses on designing for specific demographic and psychographic groups. Market Smart features hundreds of design examples showing how design firms ‘speak’ to specific demographics such as baby boomers or Gen X or Y, as well as psychographic groups such as new parents, sports enthusiasts and ‘Foodies’. This books shows how other design firms have designed for that exact market. It gets the creative juices rolling.

Image Courtesy, Crescent Hill Books

What are some new projects you have in the works that designers could submit work for now (or in the near future)? 
We’re currently accepting entries to The NEW Big Book of Layouts, which will be in stores in May, 2010. 

We also have two ‘concept books’ that we’re accepting entries for: The Best of Sports Marketing and Design - we need product packaging for sporting equipment, apparel, logos for sports teams, basically any design created for the 200+ billion dollar sports marketing industry.

The Best of Sin Design (Naughty Products, Great Advertising) – Yes, we were sitting around the office one day and the idea for this book just came to us. This book will be a collection of old (think 1950’s cigarette advertisements) and new (condom ads). If we get the right content, this will be a fun, quirky little book.

Concept books are books that we are actively trying to sell to a publisher, but that don’t yet have an official publication date. To submit work: http://www.crescenthillbooks.com/submityourwork

What do you look for when selecting designers’ work for books? Can you describe the selection process?
Luckily for all the designers of the world, I am not the ‘decider’ when it comes to what content makes it into our books. (I often joke that no one wants to buy “Nancy’s Book of Favorite Logos”.) Instead, I partner with top design professionals to select the content, folks who actually do this for a living and have extensive backgrounds in graphic design and advertising. I partner with professors at major design schools, to Principals and Creative Directors at prominent design firms to select the final content for our books. All submissions are received online, which makes it easy for authors in different states and even countries to view and select winning entries. These books are mini design competitions without an entry fee.

Can anyone submit work?
As long as the work was created for a paying client within the past two years, you can submit. Of course, you have to own the copyright, or have permission from the copyright holder to submit the work. For a few of our publications, we will accept student work.

Why should designers submit their work? How do they benefit/what do they get out of it?
These books offer an amazing (and free) opportunity for designers to have their work seen by an international audience. I ship books to over 15 countries and partner with the best publishers who have very long distribution arms. This means our books are sold in bookstores throughout the U.S and Canada, as well as Australia, Japan, China, Germany, England, even Thailand, India and Korea.

Many design firms use tear sheets from our books in their portfolios, and send out press releases when their work is selected for publication.

What if a designer has an idea for a book they would like to author – how would they get in touch? What are the guidelines?
Although I am not an ‘agent’ in the true sense of the word, I do love working with authors to develop their book ideas. The first thing I’d recommend is to study our website and become very familiar with the books we do. We specialize in a very specific genre, and some books – 1c books with chapters filled with text, for instance – are not a good fit for us. Our books are all about 4c images, showcasing the newest and best advertising and graphic design from around the world.

If you have an idea that you think fits this formula, please contact me info@crescenthillbooks.com We’ve recently developed concept submission guidelines just for this purpose.

What do you look for in deciding which books to produce?
As a book producer, it’s my job to spot the holes in the market. I’m constantly asking myself, “What graphic design book needs publishing?” We keep close tabs on what all design-related book publishers are creating, and what books are coming out in the next few months. This helps us know what specific subjects might be over-saturated and which are under-represented in the market. We pitch about 5-6 new ideas to book publishers a year. Because our proposals are smart, well-researched and unique, we have a very high success rate. Publishers rarely turn down our ideas because they know we’ve already done the market research and that we’ll deliver the book on time and within budget.

Anything else you would like to add (tips, suggestions, advice etc.)?
To Design Firms: Please don’t have the intern submit your work. He will upload the wrong image or worse, spell the creative director’s name incorrectly. It’s best if the creative director submits the work personally, since he is most familiar with it. To Freelance Designers: Don’t be shy or insecure. Many designers tell me they don’t submit for fear that their work isn’t good enough. That’s silly and sad. We need literally hundreds of images to fill up these very large books. Don’t underestimate yourself.

For more information on PR for graphic designers, check out the article "Why PR Matters for Graphic Designers."

For more info, on Crescent Hill Books visit: http://www.crescenthillbooks.com/ and to submit work, visit: http://www.crescenthillbooks.com/submit