For the past five years I’ve spent nearly all of my full weekends remodeling our home. It was a lodda work, but well worth the effort.

During that same time period and beginning even farther back, I’ve been remodeling a client’s self-published book. I completed it early last summer and it finally went to press in June 2015.  Also, a lodda work, but we’re all happy we made the effort and that it is now out in the world. Here’s the cover…

The book is called the Mechanics of Vocal Expression written by Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, author, teacher and founder of the School for Body-Mind Centering®. The first edition, published in 1985, was typewritten and photocopied with pasted in illustrations. This was pretty limiting in terms of design options, but the book was well received and treasured for its content..

Fast forward a little more than twenty years when Bonnie first approached me about the redesign. By then the technology was actually making it possible to design books using a personal computer with all the design tools a designer could dream of. And so the process began with Bonnie revising and updating her original text and me working out how to organize the material so that it was visually user friendly as a work book.

Bonnie makes extended visits to locations around the globe to take people through her extensive course and training programs. The book had to be worked in around this intense schedule which was the main reason the project took so long to complete.

i first met Bonnie and her husband Len back in the 1970’s when they first arrived in the Amherst area. I have worked with them on several projects over the years and now with their kids who are handling various aspects of the operation. Together, they’ve touched a lot of lives in really positive ways centered around Bonnie’s work. To learn more about Bonnie’s work visit the Body-Mind Centering website and/or Facebook page.

Here are some pages from the interior of the book. There are several sections to this workbook with chapters containing instruction with illustrations as well as exercises for the reader to practice.

The title page above, sets the tone of the overall layout.

 

Here is the title page spread as would be seen when the book was open.

 

The above layout is a spread from the book’s introduction.

 

Here is a spread showing a section opening.

 

Above is a typical chapter page containing instruction, illustration and exercises.

This is the back cover and below is a cover shot showing the spiral binding, The spiral binding makes it possible to perform the exercises, some using the whole body, without losing one’s place. The book lays flat on the floor or table when opened without springing closed.