Ostrom Press

A university press with forty titles a year and no rule for the forty-first. A series system a designer who has never seen the brand can set.

Client
Ostrom Press
Sector
Publishing
Year
2017
Scope
Identity, series system, cover templates
Duration
16 weeks
Ostrom 1
Fig. 01

Ostrom Press publishes forty titles a year across six series, and every cover had been designed from scratch by whoever was free that month. The press wanted a system that made a series recognizable on a shelf without making every book the same.

What we did. A mark of two concentric rings, a spine system that fixes the position of the mark, the series color and the title on every book regardless of its width, and a cover grid with three permitted compositions per series. Templates for the press's own designers, with the guidelines printed as a book in the same system.

What it changed. The series system paid for itself in the first season. A freelance designer who had never worked with the press set the forty-first title correctly from the templates alone.

Ostrom 2
Fig. 02 Spines from three series, the mark fixed on every one
Ostrom 3
Fig. 03 Shelf card and tote for the spring list
Ostrom 4
Fig. 04 The guidelines, printed as a book in the same system