↓Skip to main content

The Music of Friends

Portfolio Book Design Ebook Formatting Cover Design case studies work examples print book design ebook design kindle formatting indexes photography back matter
A design case study for a book celebrating 75 Years of the Chamber Music Conference and Composers’ Forum of the East

A celebration of 75 years #

Front cover featuring the title The Music of Friends, with 10 photos arranged around the perimeter, each photo a close-up on a hand holding a musical instrument
The Music of Friends: 75 Years of the Chamber Music Conference and Composers’ Forum of the East, by David W. Webber.

To celebrate its 75th anniversary, the Chamber Music Conference and Composers’ Forum of the East produced a book documenting its rich history. The Music of Friends was authored by David W. Webber.

I was retained to come up with the overall book design, lay out the paperback print version, adapt the layout and design to an ebook version, and design the covers.

A photographs-rich history #

The primary focus of the book is a written narrative of the 75-year history of the organization and its various events. The Chamber Music Conference’s rich archive of photographs served to supplement and highlight moments of this history.

After some discussion, we decided on a 7.5″ × 9.25″ trim size for the paperback design. This allows for a comfortable text column with wide margins generous enough for sidebar content and smaller photographs. Other photographs could be worked into the flow of text.

Chapter spreads #

Spread featuring a sepia photo of Le Chateau, a building at Middlebury College. The chapter title, Founding and Early Years: Middlebury College, with an epigraph, and a half page of the main text.
Chapter 2 spread.

Each chapter begins with a full spread. On the left, a full-bleed single image or a montage of several images. On the right, the numbered chapter title, an epigraph and citation, the beginning of the chapter’s main text, and at the foot, a caption for the image(s) on the left.

Spread featuring a color photo of conductor in white coat leading an orchestra in front of an audience seated on folding chairs, circa 1955. The chapter title, The Early Bennington Years: A Cooperative Venture, 1951 to 1960. With epigraph and a half page of main text.
Chapter 3 spread.

Photographs and sidebars #

Working with the client, we chose a dark teal-blue accent color for the chapter titles, dropcaps, etc.

Spread with main text in wide columns towards the spine. On the left at the bottom of the page is a black-and-white photo from margin to margin of several people, three with alpenhorn. On the right, at the top is a black-and-white photo from margin to margin of a square dance, with several people watching a couple move between them.
Spread with two photos spread margin to margin, on the bottom of the page on the left, and at the top of the page on the right, for a balanced layout.
Single page with the main text in a wide column down from the top, and a color photo from margin to margin showing a septet playing strings, woodwinds, and piano.
Page with a photo cropped in large enough so that participants are recognizable in the group.

Full-page sidebars and sidebar spreads #

Spread with main text (black on white) on the left side, with a small black-and-white photo at the top of the left margin. Page on the right has a pale teal-blue background with two columns of smaller text, with two photographs of the people highlighted in the text.
Spread with full-page sidebar.
Spread with large photo on the left from margin to margin aligned to the bottom, with a small bit of main text above it, and main body text in wide column on the right page, and a blue-background sidebar containing a color photo and text.
Spread with photo placed in main body text, with caption, opposite page with sidebar.
Page of sidebar content in two columns of text with three photographs, over a teal-blue background.
A “sidebar” page.

Rich back matter #

Being a history, the main text was rich with endnotes. (We agreed that endnotes were preferable to footnotes in the interest of keeping the pages “clean” as there already were enough components.) There also was a need for not one but two name indexes, one for people mentioned in the text, the other for composers and their compositions mentioned. The back matter also includes comprehensive lists of participants and composers over the 75 years, and a chronology of notable moments in the history.

Endnotes page from note 26 through 58, with ‘Chapter III’ break before note 41.
A page from the Endnotes, broken up by chapter.
Page containing two-column index listing people alphabetized by last name, with page numbers for each.
One of two indexes. This lists persons mentioned in the text.
Page containing two-column index listing people alphabetized by last name, with sub-listings of titles of musical works and associated page numbers for each.
A second index lists the compositions mentioned in the text, grouped by composer.
Two-page spread containing two-column alphabetical list of names grouped by instrument: Oboe, Clarinet, Horn, Bassoon, Piano. A year appears in brackets next to each name.
This section lists all musicians who participated in the Conference, grouped by instrument.
Page containing two-column alphabetical list of names. A year appears in brackets next to each name.
Another appendix lists all the composers who participated in the Conference over the years.
Page containing two-column chronology of events: the left column has years (1982–2001), the right column has a sentence or two of text for each year.
A chronology of notable moments in the history of the Conference rounds out the appendices.

Ebook formatting #

Although The Music of Friends contains numerous photographs, the primary flow of the book is as a narrative. Therefore, the ebook is formatted as reflowable text.

The ebook’s visual design follows the overall layout in terms of colors and preliminary font selections (recognizing that readers can override such settings in their own ereader preferences).

Cover design #

Front cover featuring the title The Music of Friends, with 10 photos arranged around the perimeter, each photo a close-up on a hand holding a musical instrument
How do you design a cover that says the book is about people without making it about one or two specific people? Hands on instruments seems to capture the essence.
Splayed-out image of the full cover. On the back, three images arranged with text describing the book. Front cover featuring the title The Music of Friends, with 10 photos arranged around the perimeter, each photo a close-up on a hand holding a musical instrument.
The paperback cover, designed for gloss finish.

More about the Chamber Music Conference and their 75th anniversary can be found on their website.