First Fruits of Zion, Inc. Religious Publisher Springfield, Missouri
Project
Branding and Book Cover Design
Problem
All volumes of this commentary series were originally produced as loose leaf sets and mailed monthly as a subscription based service, the sheets were collected into a branded and printed binder for future reference. This production aesthetic caused the commentary content to be greatly marginalized in the broader community of scholarship.
Solution
Streamline the design and presentation of the commentary material and re-design the packaging and cover designs to more accurately reflect the content for each book in each volume of the series.
The original Torah Club commentary was published in 1998, and new volumes were produced over the next decade until the series had reached a total of six volumes and a grand total of more than 5,500 pages. These were originally produced as loose leaf sheets organized into chapters and were mailed out as a subscription-based service and was the main vehicle of financial support for the publishing ministry of First Fruits of Zion, Inc.
When a more robust and sustainable model was created to support the organization from a financial standpoint, the idea that Torah Club should be moved into a more permanent and visually pleasing collection was put into motion.
The task was to source affordable printing options for such a large and expansive multi-volume case-bound book set to see if this type of production was even feasible for a relatively small publisher. Once the hard cover print option was green lit, then the overhaul of the brand as a whole ramped up. The original commentary set utilized a subtle series of colors to differentiate the Torah Club volumes from one another, this was the only design aspect that we kept from the old binder set volumes. The rest of the design direction was built from the ground up.
A new, clean and efficient serif font was chosen for the text of the commentary material and the title treatments for each volume. The decision was made to utilized a duotone type cover image and a uniformed spine design for a nice clean, non-distracting look for each volume of the commentary set. This also gave each volume a distinct but solid shelf presence.
Also new to this iteration of Torah Club was the development and design of an Appedices book to accompany the commentary set, this additional resource included previously unreleased and newly developed material including essays, maps, charts, diagrams, indices, and cross references.
The migration of the six volumes of Torah Club material from binder sets to case-bound printed volumes was a process that took a total of eight years as the goal was set for approximately one volume a year with time allowed for project creep since personnel resources were at a premium. Each volume in the series required heavy editing, extensive proofing, and new material to be developed. Overall this project was a great success and led to the material being more accepted in the broader community of Christian scholarship than previously.
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