Here is how I can help!

You’ve got all the goods like knowing your audience, your voice and your message but you’re not sure how to put all those pieces together to create a rich visual and immersive experience. You’re in the right place. Let me help you walk through the design process by using collaboration, curiosity and bold empathy to create something that is smart, thoughtful and dang delightful to look at and flip through.

Book Design

You’ve agonized over plot lines and have edited and honed your writers’ voice and now you’re ready to have a cover that adequately represents the thought and care you’ve dedicated to this book project. As an expert in my field, I’ll turn your sharp as a tack manuscript into thumbnail and shelf eye candy that will both fit within your genre while standing out from the pack.

  • If you’re here to find a book designer that knows her stuff, you’re in the right place. I will take your prompt, metaphor, vibe and iterate deliciously clever concepts that perfectly encapsulate the content within and the genre it’s made for.

  • Pulling from my expertise as an editorial designer, I create sharp interiors that are heavily formatted. Think cookbooks, how-to’s, lookbooks, art-books and such. You can either provide all the assets and I then make magic on the page or I can jump on board to direct and design the entire visuals of the book including finding and managing other creatives (photographers, food stylists, illustrators etc.).

  • My book designer toolbox includes type based covers, mixed-media collages, hand-drawn or hand-made elements or using stock imagery to create a completely custom cover. I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty or find unexpected solutions.

  • We can customize your cover menu to fit your needs. Most folks usually need all or some of the following deliverables: Print cover wrap, Ebook cover, Audiobook image. Additional elements that make the book experience cohesive, professional and compounds the visual and experiential impact include social media images and adverts, website banners and other marketing collateral.

Editorial Design

The story is written, now what? You’ve got your killer good cover story but you’re not sure how to distill those words into a visually dynamic cover that looks great in mailboxes and bookstore shelves or you might be wondering how to find and manage a photographer for your interior layout. With the ability to create magazine covers and interiors that win fancy awards and global acclaim, I am the magazine wizard you need to have in your pocket.

  • My former professor and design idol, Ian Lynam, once was quoted saying something like “If you can’t make it good, make it weird. If you can’t make it weird, make it good. But the best design is both good and weird.” Let’s get weird and find unexpectedly clever solutions to your magazine’s design challenges. For various covers + interiors, I’ve piled baked goods onto my editor’s face, I’ve asked an illustrator to draw a waitress floating in a gigantic bowl of delicious looking ramen and I’ve photoshopped a tin foil hat onto climate denying Texas politician to spice up a dense news article. The possibilities of weirdness and goodness are endless.

  • My editorial wheelhouse runs a wide gamut where I can seamlessly come on board under the direction of an AD to workhorse out some interior spreads or I can help craft and guide the entire creative direction of a magazine from the first brainstorming session to sending that editorial baby off to the printer. If you’re under the gun of press deadlines and need someone extra to pitch in or are just unsure how to bring your stories into a visual landscape, I’m the full-rounded pro you need.

  • Before we begin our creative collaboration, we will discuss in great detail all the deliverables you might need. Most folks will need all or some of the following: cover wrap, interior files, flyers, billboards and/or social media marketing images. Beyond the physical deliverables, each project will entail design strategy, research, ideation, concepting, and full proofs to create the snappiest looking magazine this side of the Mississippi.

Brand Publishing

Part book, part magazine, custom brand publishing serves to inspire and enrich the lives of your customers and build one-of-a-kind brand loyalty. Brand publishing is when a non-media company creates editorial content. Think customer welcome guide, fashion lookbook, mini-magazine, annual report, product catalog, or non-boring workbook that your conference attendees will actually want to fill out. Brand publishing can take many shapes and forms and I’d love to dive into early brainstorming sessions to find a design solution that communicates effectively and beautifully with your core audience.

  • You’ve got a brand that needs to reach your clients on a tactile level. Perhaps you want to round out your brand experience by giving your customer base a mini-magazine to hold or you want a new way to tell your brand’s stories by providing a booklet that highlights your expert-ness. To have and to hold a beautiful piece of branded publication is the name of the game here.

  • Pulling from my vast experience as a book and magazine designer, my way of producing communication collateral can take many different shapes and forms. If you’re a client that has all the creative assets and edited copy in hand but you need a designer to put all the pieces of the puzzle together, I got you. If you’re in the early stages of a brand publishing design project but not sure how to take your kernel of an idea and turn it into printed magic, let’s talk. I will work with you to define, visualize and produce a piece of collateral that will deftly skip the recycle bin in favor of the much-coveted coffee table.

  • Due to the nature of endless possibilities, your final deliverables will be custom fit to meet the needs of your project. Some projects require both art direction of the cover wrap and interior pages. Other projects require design of just a few interior pages with a sprinkling of social media graphics added on to round out the audience experience. All deliverables will be discussed and agreed upon before the project gets officially rolling.

Working with Sarah in an editorial setting was nothing short of ideal. A quick designer with a thoughtful process, Sarah’s work at the Current added depth to our storytelling with a clear respect for the content, characters and authors. The amount of research she puts into every design is inspiring and her work ethic and dedication to detail is commendable. No project too big or small, Sarah was a force in the editorial department and the backbone of the team.

Alejandra Gonzalez

Digital Content Editor, San Antonio Current

My Process

Discovery 

I’ll ask you a gazillion questions to get at the meat of the project. Some of the Q’s will be super simple like “What’s your final title?” and others will be more abstract and vulnerable like, “How should the reader feel when they see this cover.” Please be an oversharer here! The more juicy details you gab the more insights I'll have into your intentions, what motivates you, your desired outcome and how to translate and communicate all that in a beautifully designed experience.

Research + Experiments

I’m giddy at the stage! I’ve got tabs on tabs up on my browser with research, I’ve pulled books off their shelves and reserved more at the library. I’ve readied my favorite sharpie pen and opened up my favorite sketchbook. I’m word mapping, thumbnailing, cutting, pasting, experimenting. I’m asking myself “Wouldn’t it be cool if…”

Design + Feedback

After all that iteration, research and brainstorming, I hop onto the computer to digitize the strongest concepts. I’ll circle back to the original Q&A to make sure I’m hitting all the notes and tones needed for this project asking “why” along the way. Once those concepts are complete, I’ll ship those concepts out to wow you and collect your feedback — after all, you know your words, brand and story the best. As a team, we are reviewing every inch of the design to make sure your project is juuuuusst right. And voila! You’ve got yourself a smart and creative printed piece that is beyond what you could have visualized for yourself but is somehow perfect.

We’re a perfect fit if…

  • You’ve got your ducks in a row and you know your audience’s needs and your brand’s voice.

  • You are looking to deepen your relationship with your loyal customers through printed collateral.

  • You value and support creative curiosity by daring to ask and answer, “Wouldn’t it be cool if...”

  • Your story, manuscript or copy is edited so that it's mostly-ish free of any grammatical mistakes. 

  • You approach creative projects with a collaborative and inclusive spirit.

The IG Grid