book design
I bring a strong literary background to my design work with authors and publishers. I hope to facilitate the book's production by expanding possibilities through deep research, while guiding the project to the most effective and original visual presentation that will serve the content on its journey into the marketplace. My services include cover design, interior design, style sheets, typography, compositing, original art, promotional materials, launch postcards and posters, ISBN management, website support, printed collateral, copyediting and proofreading.
Click on any image below for a closer look.
“‘We are all so impossible: how could we not love / that we can never touch / the giant tube worms inside their sheaths / gently waving their red plumes in the boiling dark,’ writes Daneen Bergland, and it’s in the momentary slip at “that”—between loving the fact that we are each so impossible, and loving the impossibility that we can ever really touch—that there is a characteristic crack. Bergland’s poems move mysteriously, often by opposition, toggling between desire for and resistance ...”
THE GOODBYE KIT | by Daneen Bergland
from Airlie Press, August 2024
Poet and Professor at Portland State University, Daneen Bergland’s poetry is awash in lyric. Mapping the charged terrain of human relationship, and marked by a feral sensuality, these poems explore the ecology of intimacy. Beauty and loss, as witnessed through our “wolf-colored glasses.”
“Huge thanks for your gorgeous designs- You are the best!”
THE WATCHING SKY | JUDY BRACKETT CROWE
Congratulations to Judy Brackett Crowe on the publication of her gorgeous manuscript The Watching Sky. From Cornerstone Books, January 2024. You can buy it here.
Honored to have designed the cover and the website. Companion bookmark below.
Revoke, Joy Manesiotis. Airlie Press, 2023
“The progress from dawn to night is offered in a series of variations strategically placed throughout the collection, creating an arc of time that in its turn encompasses months or years, comprising the dramatic unity of a single day that seems to last a lifetime. These continuities make a whole of the book’s individual poems, which are in conversation with one another, specific phrases getting repeated to reinforce what ultimately is a single long poem.”
“Beth Ford ... is truly a poet’s designer, whose close attention to poetic form at all levels is evident throughout her designs. For my book, she offered many different concepts and developed a cover design that was completely different from what I had envisioned but that ultimately suited the book so well, with its merging of beauty and imperfection—and careful consideration of compositional elements of texture, color, and balance. In addition she creates unique interior design elements that complement the work, and again offered multiple options until landing on a subtle and elegant treatment that greatly enhanced the book.”
A RUPTURE IN THE INTERIORS | VALERIE WITTE
from Airlie Press, 2023
“The wonder of this book is how it makes one feel as though one is holding not page, not book, but the fine texture of skin itself. Ultimately, this book strikes the song of the body’s largest and most visible organ, where we are the most vulnerable, where we first appear, then finally disappear, where ‘we are almost human anyway.’”
SEND WORD, Donna Henderson, FROM riparian press, SEPTEMBER 2022
110 pages. Three color interior, perfect bound with french flaps, and vellum inserts. from Riparian Press, Copyright, 2022.
The author’s paintings share the pages with her poetry, both breathtaking. A seasoned poet, and a gifted artist, I was lucky to have been a part of this beautiful book. You can buy it here. [Riparian Logo and website also designed.]
“Beth, I could not have begun to imagine a book as beautiful as this! Which is where you came in. You did, and the collaboration has been a pleasure of its own. The first of many, I hope. Thank you, & thank you.”
About the Author
Donna Henderson is the author of three previous collections of poems, two of which (Transparent Woman and The Eddy Fence) were finalists for the Oregon Book Award in Poetry. Her poems, artwork, song lyrics, essays, and reviews have appeared in journals, anthologies, exhibits, and digital platforms. A practicing psychotherapist, Donna lives with her husband, Rich Sutliff, on the banks of the Deschutes River in north-central Oregon.
“For Beth, who has created such art. Thanks for the red and the black, for the veilings + the placement, the framing of images, for the graphic brilliance of the thing. Thanks for the perseverance and getting through the irksome bits. I love what you’ve done. With gratitude, 11/2023 -Kit”
“Kit Sibert’s Dreaming Havana Home is insouciant and frail. A fifties boy’s bicycle ridden around by a trio of Castro’s guerrilla soldiers. The ghost of Senator John Kennedy recovering from a Cuban orgy. An illicit plunge into a saltwater pool. Archie and Veronica comic books. Gulps of jugo de mango. Super 8m family movies, adolescent flipbook. The voodoo pins in a maid’s doll. An expatriate’s first dance with Caribbean boys. Clinking rum and cokes. We hold between these covers a rare supplicant’s coming of age, a rosary of dreams that stay in the pocket, haunting us long after our feet have taken us faraway. “
—Tim Whitsel, Wishmeal, We Say Ourselves
Hardback with dust jacket. Full color. 192 pages. Copyright 2023.
ISBN: 979-8-9888632-0-5
THE ANIMAL AT YOUR SIDE, MEGAN ALPERT, FROM AIRLIE PRESS, SEPTEMBER 2020
“The Animal at Your Side spans worlds – Eastern Europe, China, Ecuador, folktale, and myth – all of these worlds equally sinister and haunting. In poems where we feel “the whirr-click of war beginning . . .” the poet learns that the best way to survive is to become “the same color as rocks, water, / anything I walked past, / see-through.” This is Megan Alpert’s gift to us—radical empathy—so we can shape-shift through these worlds as she has. This is a collection I’ll read time and again, and I know I will grow with each reading.”
—Shaindel Beers, author of Secure Your Own Mask, finalist for the Oregon Book Award
“ I never imagined I would have as much input in my book design as I did with Beth Ford (or be as happy as I am with the result). My book was particularly labor-intensive because I carefully shape many of my poems using white space. Beth had endless patience for my requests to shift words around until the poems appeared as desired. When I had second thoughts about the first set of interior illustrations she sent, she magically came up with black and white watercolors that were non-representational but suggested meanings that fit with the arc of the book. Beth Ford is not just a book designer, but an advocate for poets.
—Megan Alpert, award-winning journalist and poet
WINNER OF THE 2020 READER VIEWS LITERARY AWARD FOR “THE MOST INNOVATIVE COLLECTION OF POETRY IN 2020”
Savagery joins Mehta’s oeuvre as a reflection of what it means to be indigenous in today’s increasingly hostile, post-colonial America. Reflecting on self, place, and space and with strong confessional leanings, Savagery joins the ranks of other much-needed indigenous poetry of the era to provide a lens (and mirror) into indigenous issues and disparities while also providing a constant offering of hope. These poems are raw and very, very necessary.
savagery, j.c.mehta from airlie press, september 2019
Released in September 2019, the winner of the Airlie Prize, poet Hannah Larrabee’s Wonder Tissue
““It’s rare to find a poet at home in the world—at home in her own house and on her own land, and at home in her occasional homelessness. Hannah Larrabee’s poems make me feel the way I feel when I read Yehuda Amichai: guided by one who has been lost once or twice (or more!) and who has at heart a caring that is essential, forgiving, earthly (and earthy!). A terrific book, soulful in all its clarities.””
Title Page
Table of Contents
wonder tissue, hannah larrabee Airlie Press, 2019, ISBN: 978-1-950404-01-8
““Beth Ford is an intuitive and exceptionally talented designer. I had only a basic idea of what I wanted for the book cover, and Beth took it to heart and returned with an incredible, sophisticated design.
She also took it upon herself to edit the phrenology image to include phrases from my poetry in designated sections of the brain, rather than the standard psychological terms. Even after the cover was settled, we went back-and-forth to incorporate details in the book content as well.
As talented as Beth is as a designer, she is also an excellent communicator and you will genuinely work together on the final product. I can’t recommend Beth Ford enough, and I thank her for her time, attention to detail, patience, and creative talent.” ”
Alternate Cover concept
Released in September 2018, the winner of the Airlie Prize, poet Sarah McCartt -Jackon's Stoneligjht.
I can barely express what an impression this book and this poet have made on me. It is unlike any book of poetry I've ever encountered. Darkly beautiful, fiercely original, brightly inventive. The poems are in the vernacular voices of a coal mining family in 1930's Kentucky. Love, grief, penury, folk medicine, endurance, and superstition come alive in their hauntingly vivid voices. These poems burn with light in the darkest of places. I warn you, it casts a spell.
I'm honored to be the designer for the cover and interior of the book, some samples of which appear here. Visit this very gifted poet here: https://sarahmccarttjackson.com
Promotional Postcard
Title Page
Sample Poem
in addition to the airlie prize, Stonelight has won the prestigious Weatherford Award. [Previous winners include authors such as Charles Frazier for Cold Mountain and Barbara Kingsolver for Flight Behavior, among many other amazing talents.] Also, Sarah McCartt-Jackson was the featured artist for the Kentucky Arts Council for the months of February and March 2019. Congratulations Sarah!
To see the evolution of images for this cover, visit Design Brief: Stonelight.
Stonelight by Sarah McCartt-Jackson (Airlie Prize winner, 2017) was awarded the fifth annual Phillip H. McMath Post-Publication Book Award.
From Airlie Press, Portland Oregon.
Table of Contents
riddle fish hook thorn key - kelly terwilliger
Airlie Press, 2017, ISBN: 978-0-9895799-6-4
Back Cover
So pleased and proud to announce the publication of Kelly Terwilliger's latest book of poems RIDDLE FISH HOOK THORN KEY. It was a joy to collaborate on this superb collection. I highly recommend it! Available from Airlie Press.
“Kelly Terwilliger is making magic. Her fabulous poems, replete with search and mystery, the thoughtful meandering of wise eyes, peer under what we see and see more. The lost things come and go as they please. Here is presence of tenderness, infinite care and curiosity, shaping a richly vivid world we all would want to live in. Single poems like “Net, Sorrow, Cradle” may be with you forever. Her spirit! Her voice! It has restored my faith in words and I am a fan FOREVER.”
Table of Contents
Early Cover Draft
smithereens - ryan scariano
Imperfect Press, 2014, ISBN: 978-0-9894704-0-7
Launch Event Poster
Title Page
Sample Page
Front and back cover
Colophon
Author photo: Beth C. Ford
partly fallen - deborah akers
Airlie Press, 2015, ISBN: 978-0-9895799-1-9
Cover front and back spread
Book Release flyer
Promotional Flyer. Author photo: Beth C. Ford
Title Page
Sample Page
Author photo: Beth C. Ford
wish meal - tim whitsel
Airlie Press, 2016, ISBN: 978-09895799-4-0
Book release poster
Sample Page
Title Page
Table of Contents
Sample Page
Fine Letterpress Broadsides. Printed by hand on an antique Chandler & Price press.. Edition of 100.
Fine Letterpress Broadside
shimmer and drone - paulann petersen
Imperfect Press, 2012, Chapbook hand-sewn, numbered, sleeved in a title-plated envelope. Edition of 250. [Sold out.]
Book release flyer
Title Page and Colophon
Sample Page
Sample Page
Limited-edition Broadside
““This may be the most beautiful book you ever own. No exaggeration. Poems about India dedicated to her Indian family, this numbered and signed edition of Shimmer and Drone by Paulann Petersen is a marvel. Hand-bound by Imperfect Press of Portland, designed by Beth Ford, pictures just don’t do it justice. “The bookmaker and I wanted it to be something beautiful that was accessible to virtually anyone,” says Paulann, “so it originally sold for $10, and was for sale briefly and only locally.”
This is the generosity and big heart of Paulann Petersen, to make a work of art that should go for hundreds available to all income levels. She also says it nearly sold out the very night of its release, and went out of print very shortly after. Well, duh! Honestly? Priceless.””