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Could you please describe the tasks of your job at Elsevier?
A little bit of hyperbole… I create order from chaos. At least that’s what it feels like when I get a 300-page sample chapter of raw manuscript with little but italics and bold to differentiate the parts of the text. My job is to make the text of a book coherent, consistent, and logical as well as alluring, attractive, and readable. I do that with type, color, and space. And before doing so I must consider the desires and needs of marketing, editorial, the author, the market, and the reader... in that order. Book design is not decorating. Book design is arguably the most analytical, logical, and mathematical of the design fields. Even though they are most definitely creative, book designers must also have a very strong sense of order and organization. After the book is designed I write the specs. The specifications are a written description of every element in the book - how it functions, what it looks like, how it should be positioned - and all rules and regulations regarding layout. It is a blueprint for the architecture of the book. Good design should be “invisible,” meaning, it should meld perfectly with the content; it should be beautiful both in its form and in its function.
“Book design is arguably the most analytical, logical, and mathematical of the design fields. Good design should be “invisible” - meaning that it should meld perfectly with the content. Book design should be beautiful both in its form and in its function.”
How would you describe the challenges of your job?
The volume of work has increased substantially in the last 4 years and we have been encouraged to outsource much of our work. The ability to manage and direct freelancers is not a skill most designers innately possess, but I learned out of necessity and it has worked out well. Now the challenge is finding and vetting freelance book designers; there are not many designers with both design and spec writing skills. It is a unique skill set. One cannot learn to properly design books without working at a publisher. Ultimately, however, my biggest and never-ending challenge is explaining to editorial staff and authors what it is I do for the manuscript. I don’t think I’m ever entirely successful at this, and I find that I must explain it over and over again to both new and veteran editors. A correlated challenge is that of not becoming indignant when it seems that once again my skills are being perceived as something akin to decorate the book.
What is the most interesting thing you have learned from working at Elsevier?
When I began working here, in 1989, I was manually pasting and laying out journals on paper boards. Within four years we moved to electronic layout, and I worked on the first electronically produced journal at what was Mosby at the time. I have experienced the shift from film to totally direct-to-press digital. I also worked on the first 4/c book to go direct-to-press, a significant event at the time. Now everything is digital. And the new digital work-flow enables me to send files effortlessly back and forth to compositors halfway around the world. It’s amazing, really. It’s also amazing that I communicate every day with people in India, Malaysia, and Hong Kong.
What does working at Elsevier mean to you?
It is very satisfying as a designer to be involved in the production of books in general (as opposed to advertising material that perhaps gets thrown away after it serves its purpose) and educational books in particular; aiding people in absorbing and understanding information. Most design jobs involve making things that people do not value. I would have terrible moral difficulties designing anything else. It already bothers me quite a bit the amount of paper I play a part in using every year. But in this job, through good design, I can mitigate paper use. That’s remarkable.
“I enjoy the freedom and flexibility; the recognition that everyone is inspired and motivated in different ways”.
What do you like about Elsevier as company?
I enjoy the freedom and flexibility; the recognition that everyone is inspired and motivated in different ways. Though our facility is located in a soulless industrial park in the far western suburbs of St. Louis, one redeeming quality is that it is close to a gym (whose membership is subsidized by Elsevier, another wonderful benefit) and near a network of paved trails on the flood plain of the Missouri river. Nothing clears my mind better than an intense bike ride in the middle of the day (with a bit of bird-watching, to boot).In the past two years I have worked in a department in which 75% of the people are close friends and the other 25% are people that I like very much. I expect that I will most likely have these friends for the rest of my life. Sometimes it’s almost too much fun. The good social environment helps diffuse the frustrations. There are a lot of very smart, very interesting, even eccentric people working at Elsevier. Elsevier appears to value the eccentricities and the eccentrics. I count myself proudly among them. Oh yes: excellent benefits. I think I will retire comfortably and be able to ride my bike every day.
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