Instead of just printing the book as it was, I duplicated each page and included photo tags, family stories about the trip, and pieces of historical research to round out the book. Now instead of just photos, the family has a durable version that includes all of the stories about the trip. The Beck Family Road Trip – by Elva Beck paperback can be found here.

Not only did I get to create a really cool product, I also learned a lot about what it meant to take a road trip in 1939.

My Role in this Project

Given the direction of a road leading to a “goal” sign, I illustrated the image in the header and designed the rest of the web page to suit.

About the Neighborhood

This project is part of the Local Flavor Guide series produced by the Mile High Business Alliance. The Old South Pearl Street shopping district is south east of downtown Denver, between Alameda Ave. and Jewel Ave (north/south) Broadway Blvd and the Washington Park neighborhood (west/east).

Like other neighborhoods in Denver, Old South Pearl Street developed along a street car line. Over the years, the rails went away and eventually the I-25 highway was built, bisecting the neighborhood. The area we now call Old South Pearl Street is just the southern bit of the original neighborhood boundaries – from I-25 on the northern end, to Jewel Ave. on the southern end. This neighborhood is home to boutiques and restaurants. Though the business district has had its booms and slumps over the past 100 years, the area is still relatively affluent.

The art direction for this guide, as always is to give a good feel of the neighborhood. You can download a pdf of the guide from MHBA’s site.

My Role in this Project

I designed the overall look for the guide series and each individual guide. The images used in each guide is a combination of photography that I shot, illustrations I drew, and some stock images. Click through the thumbnails above to see the finished guide and the photos I took for it. This guide is a remake of the 2007 version.

See other Local Flavor Guides

This is one of those fun projects that had a general outline for content, but that grew and evolved as the design developed. For example, instead of a list of highlights from the year, I thought a timeline with thumbnails would be a more interesting way to present the information. Also, since the organization’s biggest assets are its relationships and connections to other people, I decided to add a playful staff profile section–just another opportunity to say “hi! we’re actual people and not just some name on an automated phone menu somewhere.”

I created all of the staff illustrations and shot most of the photos.

You can download a pdf versions of their report here.