Most attribute New Orleans’s cultural references to the French but the period of Spanish governance (1762–1803) had a massive impact on the city. The French Quarter isn’t so French when it comes to a lot of the architecture and infrastructure. The New Orleans Historic Collection hired DJB Design to design a bilingual catalog to accompany a joint exhibition with Spain at the Collection. Twice delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic, the book and exhibition finally arrived in 2022.

The book is dense with type with myriad essays and lists of items featured in the exhibition, but I found ways to take unique decorative details to use as cohesive design bits throughout the book. For example, borders weren’t simply drawn but borrowed from the watercolor and ink maps done by cartographers of the time. Text separators and chapter headings were dressed up with details of the famous iron work of the Pontabla at Jackson Square. Designing a book in English and Spanish had its fair number of challenges but the result is a stunning addition to any library.

Ask: Design a 175-page, bilingual catalog book to support a joint exhibition between The New Orleans Historic Collection and the Spain Arts and Culture commission.

Tools: Adobe Creative Suite

Deliverables: Design for a hardback, jacketed book with endpapers; design for the intro wall to the exhibition and text panels in the room.

Timeline: 2 years (the Covid-19 pandemic twice delayed the opening of the exhibition)