Re-design of decades-old and divergent templates for the Royal BC Museum handbook series, culminating in the jewel of the guides, Mushrooms of British Columbia. In the 30+ years since many of the museum’s handbooks were published advancements in printing, photography, workflow, and digital formats means a small team—myself in design, an editor, two authors, and a proofreader—could make a big impact for the museum’s publishing wing, and readers.
The no.1 challenge in producing the 500 page guide was not making it a thousand pages. Typography, colours, and a hierarchy of headings and subheads were developed to fit each entry to a single page, interspersed with interpretations, field notes, anecdotes, and a new standard in the museum’s handbook taxonomy particularly adapted to, well, taxonomies.
I incorporated InDesign best practices and a depth of paragraph, character, and object styles to accommodate quick updates to the guide—already in its third printing in two years—and for future guides and formats, be they small (see the subsequent Shrews & Moles of BC), larger (Plants of BC, anyone?) or electronic (ebook-ready).
Published September 2021, paperback, 504 pages.
