Fossils Inside Out

Matthias worked with me for most of 2020 designing a large-format educational “coffee-table” book, Fossils Inside Out: A Global Fusion of Science, Art, & Culture.  This 200-page book was a challenging project with 329 illustrations (photographs and artwork), extensive captions, and 14 maps, graphs, & diagrams. Every page spread needed to be self-contained and carefully considered for stop-and-go reading.

Matthias’ experience as a designer shines through, and he was a pleasure to work with. He understands deadlines, responds promptly, works quickly, and knows how to format and deliver content for trouble-free printing.  I have always had high expectations from freelancers we work with, and it’s rare to find a book designer who is receptive to outside input from an author-publisher—Matthias is patient and communication between us was always clear and stress-free.

Some of our charts, maps, and photographs required special attention, and Matthias has the gift of being able to visualize and execute illustrations that are easy for readers to understand. He is also skilled at removing a subject from its background in Photoshop for interesting page designs. And he never loses sight of the book’s visual flow as a whole.

I found Matthias serendipitously through the internet by searching for “award-winning book designers.” His partner Lara recently captured an award, so I connected with Lime Design. She recommended Matthias for this particular job because it was closely allied with his interest in fossils and prehistoric life. I’m in Tucson and Lime Design is in Victoria, BC, Canada, so we we’ve never met in person.  We discussed my budget and proceeded cautiously at first. Now, with printed book in hand, I couldn’t be happier with the outcome––thank you, Matthias!

– Thomas Wiewandt, President/CEO
Wild Horizons Publishing, Inc.