Photo shoot!

This morning, Kay (art director), Emily (graphic designer), Ali (associate editor), and I traveled deep into the Warehouse District of Minneapolis for a photo shoot. The photos in question were for our Monica books (which feature Monica Murray, the best friend of Claudia Cristina Cortez).

Our model, Devyn, was fantastic. She's thirteen, just like Monica, and fit the part perfectly. She wasn't afraid to do silly stuff like toss pom-poms in the air or pretend to punch the camera, and she has a gorgeous smile.

All told, there were about 600 photos taken by the amazing people at Delaney Photography. We narrowed that down to a hundred that we liked. (Devyn is amazingly photogenic--it was hard to choose!) Four of the photos will end up on book covers and be on shelves in August.

Here's Devyn posing for one shot.



And here's one of the shots we loved.




Thanks, Devyn and Delaney—now Monica has a face!

Happy Birthday, Princess!

Today is Wonder Woman’s birthday! Well, actually it’s Lynda Carter’s birthday. But she was Wonder Woman, right? Because of her TV show, every young girl and boy in America knew about those bullet-repelling bracelets and the lasso of truth. The real DC Wonder Woman made her debut in the 40s, along with her Justice League buddies Superman and Batman.

I’m thinking a lot about Wonder Woman these days because, starting in January 2010, we will be introducing her to a whole new generation of kids as part of our DC Super Heroes chapter books. The books are in final edit and the new covers have just been finished. Wonder Woman – Princess Diana of the Amazons. She’s strong, she’s fearless, and she’s intelligent. Google created a new logo to celebrate this year's Comic-con, and it includes Wonder Woman. Why? Because she’s an icon for the 21st Century. She practically invented girl power.

And those bracelets are still working!

Shooting the perfect cover

Last week, three of us from Stone Arch Books—one senior designer, one editor, and one creative director—headed to downtown Minneapolis for a photo shoot. We were working on the covers for the new Claudia Cristina Cortez books that will come out next July. It was a long, fun day. The day before, Kay, the book’s designer, did a ton of shopping. She had to pick out things for the model to wear, and other props for the covers—things like pizza boxes, balloons, and sunglasses. When we showed up at the photographer's studio, we set up the props and clothes. Then, once the model and her mom arrived, we got to work! We shot the four covers one at a time, and took as many as 100 photos for each cover. After the photographer finished taking pictures for each cover, the three of us looked at all of the images on the computer and decide which ones we liked the best. It was a long day, involving many wardrobe changes, but we had a great time. And we love our Claudia model. Marcelia is 13, and we chose her over other models because she seemed so friendly, as if lots of different kinds of kids would like her. Though she’s young, she’s very professional. She’s confident as she’s being photographed, which helps us get the shots we need. Plus, she’s exactly how we imagined Claudia—fun, friendly, and with a great smile! The next step is for Kay to use the photographs to create the Claudia covers. She’ll pick a background color, add the photograph, use a cool font to showcase the title, and add interesting design elements to make the cover pop. Once the back cover copy is added, the cover’s done, and soon, it’ll be in the hands of Claudia fans all over the country!