Jack Carney is a local photographer who taught for years at Western Michigan University, first starting the beginnings of the current graphic design program at WMU, to being the head of the Photography department for decades. Jack also gained international acclaim for his personal photography work, getting much attention for his series of amazing long exposure night photography, taken around the United States. Now retired, Jack has become a very generous philanthropist, making major endowments to Western Michigan University’s School of Art over the years.
Jack contacted me to help design a retrospective coffee table style book that showcased the major collections of his long career. He organized the photos to be used, and hired a writer to refine his words and history into book form. Jack wanted a publication design that showed off his work in the best way possible, allowing the reader to see the work as large and detailed as possible. I worked with local printer River Run Press to find a size and format that would achieve those requirements, and also took advantage of the new cutting edge digital printing presses and procedures utilized at River Run Press. The design of this book was a welcome opportunity to make the book’s design 99% invisible, being there as a framework to organize the work, but getting visually out of the way so that the stunning photos got center stage on each page.