The Design Meeting

“That icon looks more like a pen than a pencil. The desktop computer figure looks outdated, can we change that to a graphic that looks like a laptop?”

“Add more cyan or magenta for the annos?”

“Can you even read this? This b-head is too small, increase the font.”

Design meetings last the longest of all publishing meetings because everyone has an opinion. Often this leads to arguments over minor details, such as choosing a color scheme. “Go with the light green.” “No, I like the slightly darker light green.”

However, in textbook publishing, especially for collegiate mathematics texts, the design meeting is as creative as it gets.

In our cover meeting for our best-selling Business Calculus title, my boss suggests the artistic direction for the cover. He wants some sort of architectural design that represents applied calculus, perhaps a building with a lot of glass windows.

I have an idea in mind. I traveled to Berlin a few summers ago, and I remember this intertwining helix of glass that you walk up a spiral ramp to view.

When I return to my desk, I scour Corbis and Getty Images (two photo stock websites the company subscribes to in order to avoid the hassle of royalty fees, permissions and licensing as this is included in the subscription fee) for pictures of the glass dome at the top of the Reichstag, the German parliament building in Berlin.

My team agrees to use the image for both the cover of the book and as a recurring image in the heads in the interior of the book. Aside from having your name printed on the copyright page once the book is published, this is the next best feeling of pride that makes the job worth it.

In all my glory, I take the book cover design (yes, I choose the image, but our designer created the cover) to show the VP, who is reluctant to be in favor of any cover that contains too much black, dark purple, or white (black being too morbid and white making scuff marks more visible). So, to get a second opinion without informing me that he was getting a second opinion, he has me show Rick, the VP of Sales for the Secondary School Division.

Rick, being quite blunt and the litmus test of all things positive and negative, says “looks great, as long as there is no one having sex in those reflections.”