Graphic Designers

Frank Serafini has been noticing graphic design explicitly in his presentations, a product of his work on the Looking Closely series of photography books. Nancy and I have talked about this for a long time as well because of her work in illustration and work for graphic designers, and then of course my mom is a designer. So I think in the upcoming editions of children's literature textbooks, there needs to be more explicit calling out of graphic designers as professionals in the process. In particular, I am taking note for many books whether there is a credit given in the small print to a designer. This is one of the ways a publisher can tell authors, illustrators, and the world that they put high value into a project. The 'in house' design team is less likely to get a credit than a designer hired from outside the firm. I suspect this is true for Saho Fujii and Marijka Kostiw, who seem to be part of some pretty big projects that were in the running for the major awards. So an editor most likely brings in the big guns when she wants the book to really look and feel like a contender.