Through the Lens: Dallas Arts District Book
Design — Publication — Book, Entire Book
Description
“Through the Lens: Dallas Arts District” is a 176-page coffee table book created to raise funds for the Dallas Arts District Foundation (DADF), the granting arm that re-invests in the visual and performing arts in Dallas. Ninety-one photographic works by 57 photographers were selected by an esteemed jury from over 1,000 contest entries from photographers of all experience levels. Our team was tasked with organizing, curating and designing a professional coffee table book as a photographic journey through this unique neighborhood.
We created a clean and refined design, suitable for the most sophisticated coffee tables, with an interior bursting with the color and energy that can be found throughout the Dallas Arts District. The durable, matte-laminate book jacket features the literal Arts District sidewalk from beneath your feet. While alluding to the book’s interior of a walk through the District, the cover imagery works well as a beautiful, neutral addition to any interior designer or arts patron’s living space. With the jacket removed, the debossed linen cover makes an equally elegant statement. Once opened, the DADF’s branded red endpapers prepare the reader for the explosion of color and imagery within.
The book’s introduction includes a dedication from the mayor, text about the Through the Lens Photography Competition and information about the District as a whole. It also includes an illustrated, placemaking map of the 68-acre, 19-city block district that is home to internationally acclaimed performing arts venues, museums, parks, an arts magnet school, churches, commercial and public spaces.
For the main photographic section of the book, the 91 selected photographs are curated geographically by location as a journey through the district. Clean and simple section dividers give brief descriptions of the venues, organizations or spaces, without overpowering the imagery with unnecessary design elements. Each photograph is given the maximum allowable space on each spread, with informative, yet minimal, captions and credits. The book concludes with a “Behind the Lens” section featuring the detailed biographies of the winning photographers.
The goal was to create a sophisticated design that showcases the winning photographic artworks in an informed journey through the Dallas Arts District – ultimately creating a stunning, highly saleable book that enables the DADF to expand their grantmaking capacity for the visual and performing arts in Dallas.
Client
Dallas Arts District Foundation
Agency/Studio
HALL Group
Credits
- VP of Marketing — Kymberley Scalia
- Senior Graphic Designer — Sara Lovas
- Copywriter — Ellen Marsau Burger
- Rights and Reproduction — Sarah Hoffman Fox
- Printer — Graphicom