"The cooking of the Indian Ocean has many temperments but only one soul, and that soul is to be found in it's spices," so says chef and author Andreas Viestad, who has homes in Oslo, Norway, and outside Cape Town, South Africa. It was our responsibility to find that soul and put it on paper. Of course it was easy to draw an inspiring color palette from the wonderful photos by Norway-based Mette Randem. Our typographic treatment was inspired by the hand-painted signs we have hanging around our studio, liberated from places as different as the Indian Territories of Oklahoma and the back streets of Tijuana, each done with care, each showing a human touch, just as any hand-rendered shop sign in Sri Lanka, Oman, or Indonesia. [note: the cover shown above is not the final version, and the book will be released soon - in time for Christmas gifts. But why wait? Buy one as soon as it comes out.]
We like it when clients are happy. In this case we worked with Chronicle art director Vanessa Dina (a former student of Marc's), and no doubt she (and Chronicle) were pleased when the author thanked "Vanessa Dina and Marc English Design for turning the text and pictures into one living whole. It looks like magic, but I know it's hard work." Viestad is right about one thing: cooking up something special with the unique ingredients we were provided. But he's a bit off on the hard work part. As he knows, it's not work when you are doing something you love, and we LOVE designing books. Especially ones that have REAL content, and are brought to light by publishers that care.

AFS | Quentin Tarantino Film Fest
AFS | Texas Film Hall of Fame 09
AIGA | Design Ranch
Buffalo Pawn
Cambridge Friends School
GCO Films | Man O' War
Greater Austin Crime Commision
KIRK
Kinsei
La Sonrisa Productions | Inside The Circle
Mass. Association of Bank Council
Quinto Malo Films | One Minute to Nine
Rancho Pancho
Unnatural Axe
ABC-TV | Healthy Start / Healthy Babies
ACADIA: Suicide, Sex & Success
AFS | 20th Retrospective
AIGA Austin | Love | Work
AIGA Boston | Touch of Power
AIGA Honolulu
AIGA Houston | Doug Sahm
AIGA Miami
AIGA Omaha | The Wolves of Texas
AIGA Philadelphia
AIGA Washington, D.C.
BF/VF | Laurie Anderson
BF/VF | MIra Nair
HOW Design Conference 2007
La Sonrisa Productions | Inside the Circle
Manufacturing Dissent
NWAADC Perspective
Ransom Center | Avant Garde Film
Ransom Center | Voyages
Texas Film Hall of Fame
Texas Writers Month | 2002 | Carpenter
Texas Writers Month | 2004 | Michener
Criterion | Border Radio
Criterion | Dazed and Confused
Criterion | Naked
Criterion | Two-Lane Blacktop
Criterion | Walker
Honora Jacob
Internet Police Alliance
Kinsei
Legacy Trails
AFS | 20th Retrospective
AFS | Texas Film Hall of Fame
Austin Chronicle | English: 2nd Language
Austin Film Society | PoV
Chronicle Books | Where Flavor Was Born
Houghton Mifflin | About Language
Massachusetts College of Art | Compton
Rockport Publishers | Designing Identity
Texas Fine Art Association | Pulp Fictions
Texas Writers Month
UT Department of Education
Vtel
AFS | Essential Cinema
AFS | Fundraising Invitation
Boston Brownies
Criterion | Border Radio
Criterion | Dazed and Confused
Criterion | Naked
Criterion | Slacker
Criterion | Two-Lane Blacktop
LOL
The Stains
Whole Foods Market | 365 Pasta | bag
Whole Foods Market | 365 Pasta | box
Whole Foods Market | Belgian Chocolates
Whole Foods Market | Pasta
Whole Foods Market | Truffles