Jesse Marinoff Reyes:
…collagist and photographer, Marc Yankus. He and I have collaborated on a number of assignments over the years and Yankus’s work was always the “easy part.” I knew his effort would be beautiful, and possessing of a certain literary narrative quality that would bring the book we were working on to life. Admittedly, there were many projects that were convoluted and difficult and it was really only Yankus that’d be their saving grace. But even with the requisites of a genre’s particulars front and center—no project was beyond Marc’s discerning eye and cinematic touch.
JMR Design
Dragon Hunter: Roy Chapman Andrews and the Central Asiatic Expedition
Viking, 2001
Design: Jesse Marinoff Reyes
Illustration: Marc Yankus
Archival photographs: Courtesy the American Museum of Natural History
Yankus at his most cinematic: Not shown here is that the collage is a very “involving” wrap-around—the procession of vehicles trekking across the Gobi points to the spine with Chapman Andrews and camel. The back cover (verso) included a nest of Protoceratops eggs and the full-body of the Velociraptor (its head and neck are extending over the front of the jacket), and of course more of Chapman Andrews, a daring adventurer of the like you’ve read about—a true life “Indiana Jones.”
Design-wise the directive needed this to be museum-y, so being classic and straight-forward (but with nice little 1920s decorative touches) seemed best, so no jazz-age art decoisms—sorry. I sooo wanted to have this printed uncoated, perhaps with a course varnish/powder splatter for “effect” or a toothy paper stock. Make you feel like you were getting sand on your fingers when you picked the thing up…! Oh well, can’t have everything.
JMR Design
The Curse of The Bambino
Penguin Books, 2000
Design: Jesse Marinoff Reyes
Illustration: Marc Yankus
(Archival photographs: Corbis; inset Photograph: Stan Grossfield/The Boston Globe)
Art Director: Paul Buckley
This was the first of two versions of this title I did (the second in 2004), here of course teaming-up with collagist supreme Marc Yankus. This one was an odd mix of literary narrative—Yankus’s painterly application of the vintage photography seems like looking through a stereoscope with antique hand-tinted color—and “b” movie matineé trailer titling (based on a suggestion from author Shaughnessy), without going all the way with creepy-horror monster type (drat!). Shaughnessy’s depiction of Boston’s “snakebit” history, after being the dominant American League franchise at the beginning of the last century, is such an entertaining read that you could go a dozen ways with this book and get it right each time.
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