adamhaslett.com

For my degree project at the Rhode Island School of Design, I decided to take a short story and expand it into a visual book of it's own. I've always loved to draw, so I chose this in order to make a project that allowed me to design AND illustrate. But I didn't just want to illustrate the story, I wanted to carry the story through the whole design. I wanted the way the type was set to enhance the story.

Finding the right story wasn't easy. Some of my favorite short stories didn't really lend themselves to a visual treatment. At the recommendation of a family member, I read through a new book of short stories named "You Are Not A Stranger Here" by Adam Haslett. A few stories would have worked well for what I was doing, but a story named "Notes To My Biographer", about a mentally ill father trying to reconnect with his estranged homosexual son, inspired me more than any other.

I worked on this book during my last semester at RISD, and when I was finished, I, with the encouragement of a few friends, decided to seek out the author and send him a copy. Shortly after sending it I heard back from Adam Haslett, who had very nice things to say about what I'd done. We exchanged a couple of emails and that was that. You can click here to see an online version of the book.

Then earlier this year I heard from him again. He had just finished his debut novel and decided he needed a website as an online source for all things Haslett, and wondered it I was interested in giving it a shot. I was thrilled at the opportunity and got to work right away.

Well, I'm happy to report that the site, shown above, is now finished (click here to visit the live site). It was a pleasure to work with someone that wanted something unique, and recognized the importance of having a designer create a site, rather than find a template online somewhere.

After the project was complete, I was given the opportunity to throw some designs in the mix for the cover of Adam's novel. I created a few designs, and went through a few revisions with the publisher, but in the end they went with an in-house design. Below are a couple of my favorites, and you can go to my site (www.thomasjquinn.com) to see a few more.