A Gorgeous New Look for AA&A
Thank you so much, Federico!!
A little more than a year ago, I sent my wonderful client Federico Fabiani a link to track the status of his picture book submission I Quit1 in Airtable. (Check out my last post about tracking submissions to learn more about this!) And in so doing, we learned that we're both big spreadsheet nerds 😅
Of course, Federico is also an amazingly talented illustrator. But I already knew that!
So when I started to make moves on bringing this newsletter to life, I knew I wanted to commission Federico to create a logo and a few doodles I could use as section dividers2. I sent him the specs and a some ideas I had and asked if he'd have the time and interest. He's busy illustrating some fab new books so I wanted to keep it as low-key as possible.
I was super excited that he said yes! And friends, oh my goodness did he knock it out of the park.
Those of you reading this via email will have already seen the gorgeous email banner he created. But for everyone on the app and online, check this out:
I love it SO MUCH. How kind of Federico to give me way better hair than I have in real life.3 And the books and bubble letters in a spreadsheet grid?! So good.
But there's more, because he actually made me two versions of the banner!! I love this one too. I don't know what I’m going to do with it yet (let me know in the comments if you have ideas!) but I'm going to find a way to use it somewhere.
As for the logo? He made three!!
I am truly obsessed with all of these, and I'm going to be using each one to represent a different section of the newsletter: Publishing Insights, Airtable Tips, and Illustrator Interviews. I hope that substack will use the corresponding logo when I send out new posts, but I'm still not entirely sure how that works. We'll see!
And best of all, even though I said that I definitely don't need a cover illustration because that would be too much effort, Federico made one anyway. And it's so, so good:
If you missed it, he turned a bookshelf into an Airtable grid!! Brilliant. I assure you this was not at all my idea. I could have never thought of something so clever, haha. And this is why you hire illustrators, folks! They are not only good at drawing, they are good at thinking. At visual problem solving. And Federico, as you can see, is one of the best.
Thank you, thank you, Federico!! I'm sorry if you're reading this and feeling embarrassed about my profuse thanks and praise of your art… but also, I'm not that sorry. 😉
Next week I'll be writing about what I think about when I put together submission lists. Until then, ciao!
I would be remiss if I did not mention that said picture book is now available for pre-order! If you like cats, toddlers, or Federico's illustrations, you should check out I Quit here. (And if you like all three you should absolutely buy it! It's a super funny and sweet book. You will not regret it.)
Federico also did indeed create a bunch of fun little doodles for post dividers, but I'll let those be a surprise in future newsletters.
Ladies and gents of yore missed out on toothpaste and hot showers but really had one up on us in the portrait department. Federico 🤝 Hans Holbein