Creative Partner & Book Designer | 2013–2024
The Client Giterdun Publishing is a one-man Colorado mountain media company built entirely on passion, founded by a backcountry skier who wrote, designed, photographed, and self-published his first guidebook on his own terms. The books cover backcountry skiing terrain across Colorado, written for the community of skiers who live for days in the trees and off the beaten path. It's a labor of love, and it shows on every page.
The Challenge Self-published books have a reputation for looking self-published. The founder had the knowledge, the writing, the photographs, and the drive. What he needed was a creative partner who could elevate the work to a level that could hold its own on a shelf next to anything in the outdoor publishing world. And ideally, someone who could ski the terrain herself.
The Approach Over ten years I became that partner. Together we developed a design system — covers, interior layouts, typography, and a visual language — that gave each book its own identity while working as a cohesive set. I designed three volumes end-to-end, handling everything from cover design and interior layout to photography curation, print production, copywriting, and editorial fine-tuning.
The Result Three published volumes, each hundreds of pages, that stand out on a shelf and work as a set. What started as one man's self-published passion project is now a recognizable, design-forward series that reflects the beauty and seriousness of the terrain it documents.
