Listen, Learn, Love, Opera by Thomson Smillie - Book Design and Cover Illustration

For the past 10 months or so, I have had the pleasure of working with Louisville performing arts writer, Thomson Smillie, on a book about learning to love Opera. He wrote this book based on talks he gives on high-end cruises around the world. The speech attendees begged him to produce a book they could take home to learn more, so here we are.

We decided to publish with CreateSpace because I had just had an excellent experience with them while designing and publishing my dad's book.

To my delight, Thomson also asked me to illustrate the cover of the book based on the facade of La Scala milan. Future editions might even incorporate more illustration work throughout.

The proof arrived yesterday, to which Thomson said, "It's not what I expected... it's far more beautiful!"

We quickly ordered the first batch to arrive just in time for Kentucky Center's Carmen performances, where Thomson will be selling copies.

I highly recommend you pick up a copy while you are there, or purchase one directly from him ahead of time so you can appreciate Carmen to its fullest! The book is also available through the CreateSpace store and Amazon.com (will link once the product page is ready).

This was a fun project and I had a great time getting to know Thomson and his wife. He's full of ideas so I'm certain this won't be our last encounter!

Thanks for reading,

Cat

Cat Scott
Louisville Graphic Designer and Illustrator
@gato108
www.CatScott.com

La Scala Milan Illustration

Just when one book design was wrapping up, another project began. This time it's for a book about learning to love opera, penned by Louisville author, speaker, and expert on the arts, Thomson Smillie. What is especially exciting about this project is that he wants to sprinkle it with lots of fun illustrations by moi!

For the cover, we went with the striking facade of Teatro alla Scala in Milan.

I love how my new "sketchbook" illustration style (which is the only style I use now) allows me to be more impressionistic. There is no need to get caught up in the details which keeps the illustrations loose and fresh. Thomson said it best; "You don't need to draw every architectural detail of the facade for someone to recognize it as La Scala. Either you recognize it, or you don't!"

This project should be wrapping up by summer time, so hopefully I will have lots of opera-related illustrations to share with you.

Till next time,

cat

Cat Scott
Louisville Graphic Designer and Illustrator
www.CatScott.com

When Time Ends: Book Design

One of the things that has kept me crazy busy over the past few months has been designing a book for my dad.

"When Time Ends places the biblical passages behind popular end-times books in their historical and literary contexts and concludes that the Bible's messages are quite different. Instead of postponing the kingdom of God to the future, voices of prophecy and apocalypse in the Bible encourage Christians to realize the kingdom on earth now through forgiveness, compassion, and reconciliation, persevering in their faith despite the overwhelming injustice and violence that surrounds them."

His book is available at Createspace and Amazon. He is also now blogging over at WhenTimeEnds.net (he's such an author!).

With all of the quotes, footnotes, multiple parts, chapters, section breaks, and bible passages, it became quite the style sheet smorgasbord. But my dad made it very easy for everything to fall into place and I'm really excited that his project is finished!

I'll update this post with mo' better images once I take some.

cat

Cat Scott
Louisville Graphic Designer and Illustrator
www.CatScott.com