Photography book celebrating spiritual life
Within Without: The Path of the Yogi
Celebrated portrait photographer Briana Blasko needed to complete a complex photography book showcasing 71 black-and-white and color photographs documenting the lives of people on various spiritual paths across India and Nepal. The also featured and introduction by noted author Pico Iyer and was published by HarperCollins India. The project required remote coordination between teams in New York, Los Angeles, and India, with tight production deadlines for international publishing standards.
My role: Lead designer refining initial layouts and managing final design completion, collaborating closely with photographer Briana Blasko, creative director Justin Peters, and HarperCollins production team.
Strategic approach:
- Refined existing comp layout set to improve readability and visual flow across 200+ pages
- Designed final cover concepts capturing the innate interconnectedness of the spiritual life while meeting commercial requirements
- Coordinated design and production reviews across three time zones with strategic in-person sessions
- Managed pre-press production ensuring color accuracy for spiritual photography reproduction
- Collaborated on format decisions balancing artistic vision with publishing constraints
Impact: Successfully delivered a critically acclaimed photography book that established a refined collaborative process, leading to two additional book projects with the same creative team.
Deliverables:
- Page layout and design concept refinement
- Book structure and content hierarchy development
- Typographic system optimization
- Production file preparation and delivery
Collaborative Process
Working remotely between New York, Los Angeles, and India, I collaborated virtually with Briana and creative director Justin Peters—meeting in-person at key milestones to share ideas and make design decisions.
Book Layout and Design
My goal was to present Briana’s contemplative images with restrained typography providing rhythm, allowing cultural portraits and rituals to unfold with clarity and impact. I selected images to convert to grayscale, balancing black-and-white and color to heighten contrast and mood.
|