Book Layouts

Roam: The Art of Travel

Not only did I write and photograph this book – I also designed it. If you ask me the publisher, (Harper Collins NZ), got a bloody good deal. It is a 270 page long, full colour  book and with pull quotes, captions, boxed articles, headings and subheadings galore across multiple chapters – there was a lot to keep track of.
I was really proud of it but it’s hard to write something about your own book that doesn’t make you sound like a vain twat but the truth is – I love it, as does my mum. My wife’s not so sure, but she’ll change her mind soon enough if we end up starving. Instead I’m going to quote from something entirely impartial – the press release put out by my publisher.

“Packed with humour, hilarity and wit, Roam will have you laughing out loud. Dean covers topics from wildlife to romance, from tourist traps to religion… Dean’s useful battle-tested tips will help travellers to be savvy and stay safe. Dean has tested these – so you don’t have to! And from these experiences he delivers his counsel candidly. With stunning photographs, Roam endeavours to motivate readers to shrug off the restraints of daily routine and societal expectation, pack their bags and take to the road.”

Freckles: The Reluctant Vampire

This children’s book is a collaboration between myself and the cartoonist Greg Penn. I wrote, designed the layout and coloured the illustrations for this book. There are number of fonts used throughout the 170 pages – both within the main body of text and within the speech bubbles. The book was written first, including all the speech bubble text, then sent to Greg for illustrating, then returned to me for shading within Photoshop. Finally it was assembled in InDesign.