UnSquaring the Wheel
Done in: Fall 20169 / Customer: Chris Bondy, Wayne Peterson and Joe Webb / Task: Book Cover Design
What the client needed
I hate being scared by the value of a project, but that fear usually accompanies the opportunity to do something great. I’ve done book and magazine covers, logos and websites before, so getting it done isn’t the issue. The fear came when I faced the notion that I could help or hinder these innovators as they communicated a business solution that could transform an industry.
Here was a chance to design a book that describes actionable business processes and introduces a web-based evaluation that would enable any print company to test their business effectiveness. Joe Webb, Wayne Peterson and Chris Bondy’s confident vision was nothing less than a company’s (and therefore an industry’s) transformation.
My part of the project
At the heart of any transformation is the ability to assess where things are off track so that remedial steps are founded in facts not hunches. This was difficult as all three authors (who each have their own business specialties) brought differing perspectives and understandings of what needed to be communicated visually. Typical of early design phase in a project, there was lots of back and forth, hiccups and false starts.
I was already well into the ideas surrounding the chapter and section designs when the revelation came. As I sifted through the emerging chapters and the required graphics, there was one core element that tied all three perspectives together … the assessment. The radar chart that was the readout of the assessment caught my attention. It had 9 sides that corresponded to the nine vectors of an effective business. I toyed with multiple sketches and concepts to demonstrate motion between a square and the nine sided chart but none of them really carried the idea of “old to new.”
The cover idea with the “high-wheel” bike was only one of several presented, but the bicycle was agreed upon because it really had all of the core concepts … an old vehicle outfitted a new way … an assessment that could tell a company where it is … nine vectors (three each for the authors’ specialties) … the means necessary to create motion again.
I also suggested words down the right hand side … If I recall it was “…and why the HELL the print business can’t run like it used to” but that got dropped for the much more genteel “BUILDING A BREAKTHROUGH BUSINESS MODEL.” What can I say … Bondy, Peterson and Webb are clearly much more gentlemen than I.
