Bound to the Country

I met Jim Graham many years ago when I was working at The Philadelphia Inquirer and was pleasantly surprised when he reached out asking for help with a book on the fox-hunting culture of the Brandywine Valley, DE. I grew up in south NJ, so was very familiar and fond of the area (it also means more to me now, since my wife grew up in the same area). I’m not much for equestrian culture, but I do have a serious soft spot for that countryside due to my early indoctrination with Andrew Wyeth’s work (thank you, mom). This is a collection of Jim’s work from decades of coverage and it was an honor to work with him to help edit it down to (what I hope!) was the very best. It is always hard to be the editor of your own work, and it was a pleasure to help him with the process. There was also a sweet addition to this project: Jim brought on a dear friend who I have not seen for years, Valerie Helmbreck, to do the top editing of the text. What a lovely project on many levels.

Client: Jim Graham
Role: Art direction and design