Graphic Designers As Strategic Partners

There comes a time for every printer when an author or small publisher asks for a recommendation for a good cover designer. One of the value-added services a book printer can offer is to have an extensive list of suppliers to recommend on such occasions. For my business, I always wanted to be certain that the vendors I recommended understood their craft and how to integrated it with our digital printing services. For no trade was this more important than for cover designers. The designers needed to prepare their files to be printed on our digital equipment. This meant understanding the capabilities and the limitations of what our equipment could print. It also meant preparing the files in such a way that they printed correctly every time we printed them.

It was not as easy as it might seem to find designers that understood our requirements. The designers would be stuck in the old paradigm of negatives and plates for printing covers. Furthermore, some designers did not understand the gamut limitations of printing color on digital printing equipment. Those designers that did understand our process and delivered clean files were the ones we tended to refer to customers asking for referrals. I have listed those designers below.

Tami Dever
TLC Graphics
Austin, TX
512-292-8798 tel.
tamara@tlcgraphics.com
www.TLCGraphics.com

Dottie Albertine
Albertine Graphic Design
Santa Monica, CA
310-450-0018
http://www.dotdesign.net

Ernie Weckbaugh
Casa Graphics
Burbank, CA
818-842-4278
casag@wgn.net

Robert Howard
Robert Howard Graphic Design
Fort Collins, CO
970-225-0083
rhoward@frii.com

Robert Aulicino
Aulicino Designs
Prescott, AZ
928-708-9445
aulicino@cableone.net
www.aulicinodesign.com

Chris Tobias
Outwear for Books
Grand Rapids, MI
248-634-3699
chris@tobiasdesign.com
www.tobiasdesign.com

Pam Terry
Opus 1 Designs
Los Angeles, CA
323-935-6666
pam@opus1design.com
www.opus1design.com

Patricia Bacall
Bacall & Associates
Los Angeles, CA
310 477-4330
pbacall@bacallandassociates.com

There are many other competent book cover designers. This list is a partial sampling based on designers I have personally worked with. For additional recommendations on designers, contact me at wafj@pacbell.net.