Bandwagon Graphiks

Over the years I have designed my fair share of pages. Magazine pages, Ad pages, One Sheets, Sketchbook Page scrawls, etc – but until recently I was devoid of one thing in my portfolio that really tests your knowlege of In Design: Books.

In mid December I was approached by a friend from the LA Bike Community to meet with his group about a zine they were putting together, he showed me some of the previous iterations and from the moment I saw where they were going, I wanted in.

The group is called The Amor Fati and they have cultivated a magazine/digest/zine of sorts chocked full of Paintings, Drawings, Poetry, Photography, Short Stories all from local Los Angelenos.

A quarterly publication, the Amor Fati choose a theme for each edition and then create a book around that theme. From the words of the poety to the layout of the pages, everything communicates the theme.

and I got to design the whole thing!

I’m so excited for this book, and the future editions that will come from the Wagon. This editions theme is Origins, and being a huge history buff – I wanted to take the approach to the book – from the perspective of someone living in the world 2,000 years ago, looking up at the sky wondering how they got there.

I stumbled across an illuminated illustration of the Islamic calendar and geocentric world, which at first sight – was my immediate inspiration. It’s rich colors and construction were all I needed to create a kaleidoscope of organic layout design.

I illustrated constellations, busted out the best of the wagon layout skills, skewed paragraph justification, broke away from the perfect grid and got down and dirty.

Besides my design love oozed onto the book, the writing and poetry is a side of LA I have not known. The stories are well written, the poetry is melodic and curious, the paintings are immersive and the photography rich.

I encourage you will all my deziner love to pick up a copy of The Amor Fati: Origins from your local Los Angeles bookstore – or order a copy online! They are only selling for $10!

If you happen to be a writer/artist – they take submissions! So submit!

For more pictures of the book, visit the Advertising/Illustration galleries!