Samples of Past Projects
The projects below represent a cross-section of work done by Catspaw DTP Services, the most recent within each section placed first. However, this mini-portfolio is by no means comprehensive! Additional samples better tailored to the needs of an inquirer can be provided on request, as can professional and personal references. Each bullet item is linked to the corresponding portfolio piece.
Fiction or nonfiction, large or small, covers and interiors, books are a special favorite.
The Aphorisms of Kherishdar
| Published by Createspace, Scotts Valley, California Written and illustrated by M. C. A. Hogarth Being a series of vignettes exploring the alien Ai-Naidari culture, as told by a public-servant calligrapher, this book demanded an graceful and elegant treatment worthy of the subject matter and the calligrapher’s calling. Available through Amazon.
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Letters Home: Memoirs of a WWII Troop Carrier Pilot
| Published by Trafford, Victoria, British Columbia Written by Frank G. Hathaway Cover design by Dave Bryant This narrative of the author’s experiences before, during, and after the Second World War was a fascinating and rewarding project, requiring design and lay-out from cover to cover.
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For Dear Life: My Life Lessons
| Published by Trafford, Victoria, British Columbia Written by L. M. Flowers Cover artwork by Christina “Smudge” Hanson This slim (0.1" spine) volume of poetry needed a simple, inexpensive cover, quickly, before going to press. The general theme of the front cover art and choice of typeface were defined by the author. The cover art was commissioned, and the leaves-on-desktop background was created new using texture generation and Photoshop.
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Game of Kings
| Published by Sofawolf Press, St. Paul, Minnesota Written and illustrated by Roz Gibson, with artwork by Karena Kliefoth This gritty short story was published as a stand-alone volume. The artwork, choice of typefaces, and placement of interior illustrations were defined by the author-illustrator. The cover design and chessboard background were created new, the latter using texture generation and Photoshop. The 0.125" spine is shown with thin, faint white rules.
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Diagrams and illustrations for marketing books
| Artwork by Dave Bryant
These figures were created for a couple of books on marketing; the first set of illustrations so pleased the author that more artwork was requested for a second. As the books’ interiors were printed using only a single color, the art had to be grayscale, and tint rather than color became the primary means of differentiating items. Most of the art was based on sketches provided by the author.
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Libra: The Cat Who Saved Silicon Valley
| Published by Amsea Publishing Group, Campbell, California Written by Lincoln and Lee Taiz, with illustrations by Lee Taiz This children’s science fiction-fantasy novel was a charming and very educational project, as it involved not simply design and lay-out but project management. Among other things, the former included accommodating a music CD of works inspired by the story and the latter included lessons on obtaining ISBNs and Library of Congress control numbers. Available through Amazon.
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Alysha’s Fall
| Published by Cornwuff Press, De Kalb, Illinois Written by M. C. A. Hogarth Illustrated by M. C. de Alarcon H., Eugene Arenhaus, Richard Bartrop, Dave Bryant, Phil Morrissey, Mike Raabe, and Conrad Wong This science fiction novel was a thoroughly rewarding and enjoyable project. With its exotic characters and locations coupled to timeless human themes, the story demanded a classically elegant feel reminiscent of the Victorian era, but updated and harder-edged to reflect the sometimes unflinching narrative tone and to appeal to a modern audience. Available through Amazon. Excerpts may contain some nudity or rough language.
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Schoolbooks and computer books
| These have included elementary, junior-high, and high-school math texts and the sort of books found in bookstore software sections, explaining the workings of specific application or system programs. Because such books often contain proprietary material, no examples can be shown on this open Web site. Catspaw DTP Services regrets any inconvenience.
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CDs and DVDs
In addition to a wide variety of disk-face artwork and case inserts, many projects have involved text or graphic content for those disks, often in Acrobat PDF.
CD face, insert card cover, and tray card
| Concept, characters, artwork, and titles by Baron Engel,
graphic design and typography by Dave Bryant The first in a series of artistic collaborations with Baron Engel to produce artwork for the CD faces, insert cards, and tray cards for the music CDs by his fictitious all-mouse girl band, Move to the Music. It’s supposed to be their debut, so the design reflects the idea that the music label would use prefabricated templates to hold the production costs down on what might turn out to be a flop. Hence it’s a touch austere, with only enough distinctive design to give it an identity on store shelves. The face art was printed on a transparent label and affixed to a CD, and the cards were printed on gloss paper. They and the original cover art were matted and framed together as a “presentation piece”.
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DVD face and cover insert
| Designed by Dave Bryant
This cover insert and DVD face were designed for a limited-edition animation showpiece. The elements used echoed the cover artwork created by the animator, giving the project a solid, unified feel.
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DVD face and cover insert
| Designed by Dave Bryant
Based loosely on a preceding design, this project used new background images provided by the client and adhered to corporate standards for type.
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CD face and navigation splash screen
| Designed by Dave Bryant
Both elements of this project had to adhere to client corporate standards, and to refer to one another visually, to create a strong, distinctive identity. Additionally, there were some minor design constraints imposed by the programming tools that would be used to create the hyperlinks and roll-over animation.
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CD face and instructional splash screen
| Designed by Dave Bryant
Both elements of this project had to adhere to client corporate standards, and to refer to one another visually, to create a strong, distinctive identity. An elaborate navigation scheme was considered unnecessary; instead, a simple introductory screen was included that would pop up to guide the user through the CD’s directory structure. Body text is original, based on content suggested by client.
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CD-R and CD-ROM faces
| Designed by Dave Bryant
These CD faces were created for a variety of projects and include three of the most common CD sizes—standard, mini, and business-card. In most cases, only one round of design was needed to satisfy the client; in no case were more than two rounds required.
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Other Projects
In addition to books and disks, there have been many other kinds of projects showcasing a flexibility and adaptability to a wide range of tasks and requirements.
Comic/manga retouching and lettering
| Pages from H2 volume 4 chapter 2 by Mitsuru Adachi
These pages were selected for their variety of sound effects, word-balloon size and density, and signage, then scanned, lettered, and retouched at 1200 dpi black-and-white. The JPEG images below were created from those images. The translation used as a guide contained dialog but no sound effects, requiring the use of rough contextual equivalents for the latter.
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Artwork and graphic design
| This includes graphic design and illustration. All material created by Dave Bryant unless otherwise noted; more can be seen on the artist’s personal Web site. Recruiting poster art print: The original illustration depicted a poster described in a short science fiction story, “The Soloist”, by Dave White. It shows a mouse-child fast asleep, combat jets flying protectively overhead.
Movie poster art print: Inspired by the Donald Fagen song “Tomorrow’s Girls”, this mock movie poster parodies the cheap and cheesy sci-fi thrillers of the fifties. The artwork involved a variety of tools and techniques, including traditional line art, photographs, digital coloring, and even scanning of folds and tears to simulate wear of the purported original.
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Writing and page design
| This includes both fiction and nonfiction. All material created by Dave Bryant unless otherwise noted; more can be seen on the writer’s personal Web site. “Sundance”: Originally published in a small-press magazine, a new version of this illustrated short science fiction story was laid out as a stand-alone document. Illustrations by Dave Bryant and Susan van Camp. Contains some nudity and rough language.
“The Uncanny Valley”: This short essay with figures explores a fascinating aspect of human psychology that ultimately may have a subtle but profound impact on mechanical design and engineering, among other things.
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Acrobat PDF Forms
| These include both informational listings and fill-in forms. All material created by Dave Bryant unless otherwise noted; more can be seen on the artist’s personal Web site. Ad Hoc Character Builder: A local writer’s group created a document to track the details of a character. After years of additions, it was disorganized and redundant, so a reconciliation was in order. The result was a Quark XPress document converted to PDF and stuffed with text fields for an author to fill in.
Typographical reference sheets: Intended specifically as “cheat sheets” for designers and production artists, these are also useful for anyone who would like to use all those nifty typographical symbols that don’t show up on a keyboard.
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Lay-out
| Lying somewhere between actual design and simple production work, the examples below required both creative input and close adherence to existing specifications. Advertising flier: Based on an existing overall design, this front-and-back single sheet was intended for distribution with a sheaf of other similar sheets as sales material. Most of the text and the specific arrangement of graphic elements, however, were original. And the services are everything they are claimed to be, besides!
Navigation splash screen: Using graphic elements derived from existing CD-face and CD-mailer art, this background was created to frame the basic navigation that would appear when the user first opened the CD.
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Hard-copy scanning
| Many companies and organizations are converting their vast quantities of old paper records to electronic formats to save space and ease access. A popular method is to run these records through a scanner equipped to feed letter- or legal-size documents automatically, convert the resulting images to Acrobat PDF, and burn the files to CD. Options include running the files through optical character recognition software and linking or bookmarking the files for navigation. As most such jobs by their nature involve sensitive material, no examples can be shown on this open Web site. Catspaw DTP Services regrets any inconvenience.
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