Coming December 2024
Authors
Dean Collinwood and Kathleen McConkie Collinwood
Genre
Religious biography for middle-aged to older adults
Dimensions
6” x 8”
Pages
300
Ink and Paper
Standard color on white paper
Overview
A Promising Life is a biography about Latter-day Saint pianist James Wilson McConkie, written by his daughter Kathleen and son-in-law Dean, both of whom are lawyers based in Bountiful, UT.
Objectives
and Goals
and Goals
Dean and Kathleen mainly wanted the biography to be available for family and relatives of James Wilson McConkie, but they also expressed interest in reaching out to local stores for wider distribution. They felt the book should have a "vintage" feel to it so that it would appeal to people who enjoy reading biographies of people featured in the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Process
• Transferred the manuscript from Word to InDesign
• Designed the cover
• Typeset the text
• Formatted the page layouts, including graphics and photos
• Touched up photos
• Adjusted the photos’ colors for consistency
• Implemented the authors’ edits and feedback
• Converted the manuscript and cover to PDF files
Tools
• Adobe InDesign
• Adobe Photoshop
• Adobe Acrobat
• Canva
Deliverables
• Full cover PDF
• Cover mockup PNGs and JPGs
• Guts (interior content) PDF
• Guts PDF in spreads (to portray the layout of the printed book better)
Reflection
This book took several months to design because (1) I made sure the authors were very involved in the process and (2) the authors kept finding new information or photos that they wanted to include in the book. The beautiful story of James Wilson McConkie kept growing, and I was grateful that I got to help the authors create a book that their family is going to love and cherish.
