Blog – Design for Books

A Kid’s Guide to Birding

Post author By Michael Rohani
Post date May 20, 2022

You’re never too young to discover the amazing diversity of birds. The many different ways birds look, fly, sing, hunt, and nest are among the most fascinating wonders of the natural world. Discover birding and you’ll discover a lot about nature and life—and often you don’t have to look farther than your own backyard.

A Kid’s Guide to Birding explains

the basics of birding for kids,
tips on what makes a good birder,
how to recognize and identify birds,
ways to attract birds to your own yard,
steps for starting your own birding “life list,”
places to find new birds,
and much more!

With over 300 colorful photographs and more than 175 kinds of birds from a multitude of habitats and different seasons of the year, A Kid’s Guide to Birding is a great visual introduction to birds for kids.

Published by Nextfolio
ISBN: 978-0-9816771-5-6
Paperback with gatefold cover, 8.5 x 8.5
Full color
Price: USD $16.95

Praise for A Kid’s Guide to Birding

“More exciting and more informative than a field guide, this is an excellent introduction. Highly recommended for all libraries.”
—Connie Pottle, Youth Services Manager, Delaware County District Library

“A Kid’s Guide to Birding . . . expertly works in an underlying theme of conservation.”
—Rob Gendron, Former Park Ranger, Naturalist, and Avid Birdwatcher

“. . . packed with wonderful bird photography and a wealth of kid-friendly information.”
—Aaron Baggenstos, Award-winning Professional Wildlife Photographer/Videographer, Author, and Owner of Aaron’s Photo Tours

“. . . a book that will inspire many to become birders.”
—Jacque Verrall, NBCT Full Day Kindergarten Teacher, Edmonds, Washington

“Wow! What a terrific book. . . . Lorenzo’s photographs are amazing … sure to kindle enthusiasm for birding in children and parents alike!”
—Dana Rozier, Author of An Inquisitive Kid’s Guide: Natural Hawai‘i

“… a wonderful book! The photography is fabulous and the information is clear, well-written, accurate and comprehensive.”
—Cathy Williams, Children’s Librarian, Columbus Metropolitan Library

A Kid’s Guide to Birding was created by father and son birding enthusiasts, Michael and Lorenzo Rohani. Together they have visited many wildlife refuges, park lands, and birding hot spots to discover new birds and, at home, they made their own yard into a bird-friendly habitat. During this time, Lorenzo documented the many birds he observed. A Kid’s Guide to Birding brings together some of Lorenzo’s best photographs from three years (2009–2012) of his wildlife photography.

A kid's guide to birding full cover image

How to Create a Competitive Cookbook

Post author By Michael Rohani
Post date August 1, 2018

Caroline Hale’s book, Live Simply Plant-Based is such a book—hundreds of recipes, especially appealing to anyone looking for an all-vegan, all gluten-free experience. Aside from being a book designer and publishing consultant, I’m an incurable foodie always on the lookout for new recipes and cuisine. For me, one of the points of traveling is to discover and enjoy new foods. Even in my own home city, I can’t resist searching the Mediterranean, Indian, Asian, and Mexican grocery stores for something new to try. So I was very happy to be able to help Caroline Hale put together the Live Simply Plant-Based book project. While this is a vegan recipe book, it is much more than recipes. Even if you’re not interested in a vegan diet it is easy to see that this book is beautiful.

Normally, to get a competitive price point for a coffee-table book of this quality would require sending it offshore. But there are downsides to offshore printing, such as long shipping times that some clients can’t accept, so I was happy to discover a U.S. printer able to handle the project at a comparable unit cost. The samples looked good, but it was still a bit riskier than my usual offshore options. U.S. printers don’t do wet proofs or dummy books to test the jacket fit. This is not a problem for simpler books, but for this design, 100% accuracy was important. Thankfully, they didn’t disappoint. The final fit and production are solid and I look forward to sending them more work.

If you like recipe books, check out Caroline Hale’s Live Simply Plant Based.

Even if you’re thinking, “I like meat, this isn’t for me” — there are whole sections of smoothy recipes, snacks, and energy breakfasts where you are unlikely to be missing meat.

And when you want to invite a vegan over for dinner, you’ll be equipped to please everyone.

Caroline Hale—who holds a degree in natural health and a doctorate in naturopathy—provides in her book a detailed and practical guide to the benefits of the vegan diet and how to easily make the transition. This is a very comprehensive guidebook with background nutritional information that even includes convenient tables for what to stock in your pantry and refrigerator as well as how to cook grains, beans, and lentils. Want to take it to the next level, she’ll help you do that with instruction for how to make your own cheeses and nut milks. And when you are out and about, she has vegan tips for eating out and when traveling.

If you’re already sold on the idea that a vegan diet is a healthier way to live and a good way to treat animals and the planet, you’ll want to go straight to the over 200 recipes. And wow, things have changed. Today’s vegan diet is not what our hippy parents were eating. There’s a lot here that anyone can enjoy without ever knowing it is vegan or gluten-free.

This has been a great year for book design projects, and this project is definitely on my top picks for 2018.

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Tags Cookbook design

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Book Design for The Joy of Creative Discovery

Post author By Michael Rohani
Post date March 4, 2018

It is really exciting to work with authors and independent publishers who care about quality and the reader experience. Pasha Hogan’s new book, The Joy of Creative Discovery definitely falls into that category. This book is an engaging collection of interesting activities, writing prompts, art projects, nature excursions, stress-reduction techniques, and much more—all carefully put together by the author to help those who are journeying through difficulties or anyone who wants a happier life.

I first met the author a few years back when I designed her book, Third Time Lucky, an inspirational account of her journey of transformation following a third cancer diagnosis. It includes her insights for living “beyond life challenges.” Her new book builds on the groundwork of her life and experiences helping others get through similar difficulties.

From a book design point of view, this book shows that, even with only a black and white interior, a book can be fun, imaginative, and engaging.

Book Cover Design Book Design Book Page Design Independent Publishing self-publishing

Book Design Tips

Post author By Michael Rohani
Post date August 7, 2017

Book design project: Navigating Change

One of my recent book design projects is Navigating Change (Flame Lantern Press). This was a fun project and it was a great pleasure to work with the author, Christine Warren. This book, as I will show, illustrates some important things to consider when designing a book.

Book cover design. — Book cover design and closeup of original illustrated cover art.

Christine is a presenter of transformational workshops, a consultant, life coach, and speaker. Her book brings together teachings, stories, and tools to help people move through life’s changes or transitions. In her words, the goal is to help people move through “life transitions with magnificence.”

Cover design for Navigating Change. — Front cover design for Navigating Change.

Her book shares the principles and practices found in her workshops. Her presentation is divided into four phases represented by the four points of the compass in this diagram.

Publishing

A Book for Fitness and Inspiration

Post author By Michael Rohani
Post date July 14, 2017

Scenic Fit San Francisco is one of the most interesting and fun recent book design and production projects to come through the office of Design For Books. If you are contemplating creating a “how-to” or self-help book on any topic, this book is an excellent example of how it is done. Scenic Fit San Francisco is the vision of Tracy Hicks, a super-fit trail runner, mountain biker, and above all, an expert personal instructor with over a decade of experience instructing outdoor workouts for groups.

Scenic Fit book cover. This is a full-color offset-printed paperback book.

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A Self-Publishing Success Story: Pacific Northwest Wildlife

Post author By Michael Rohani
Post date June 13, 2017

Pacific Northwest Wildlife is another interesting self-publishing success story. I met the author and photographer, Aaron Baggenstos, at Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge. I was there because my son, Lorenzo is also a wildlife photographer.

Book Jacket design for wildlife photography book — Book jacket design for Pacific Northwest Wildlife