The Collected Works of Joyce Stein.

When Barney Stein first came to us in March of 2020, he had a unique request. He wanted to release a collection of poems that his late mother had written, but he was feeling stifled by the process. With such an emotional experience, Barney was feeling the weight of the process. He needed some help to get up and get going, so we dove in to the brilliance that Barney’s late mother, Joyce Stein, had created.

Barney originally wanted a friend to craft the cover, but soon realized he needed something more austere and architectural. So Barney sent over a series of ornate and embossed symmetrical designs to use as a reference, but was nervous that they were too Art Nouveau. He was seeking a cover with elements that matched the time when Joyce was born–the 1930s–so we landed on a design inspired by a building from the 30s. We handcrafted the font in-house and worked with Barney to get the angles just right. After all, this is his mother’s legacy we’re talking about.

Because Joyce was an accomplished poet, we edited the work with a very light hand. During the proofreading process, we noticed a couple of areas where some clarification might be needed, and we created a tentative title for the manuscript’s final section. Barney loved the updates, so we dug in to how best to release the collection.

Because this was such a special collection, we knew we had to test it across multiple platforms. So we put the book up on Lulu, IngramSpark, and Blurb. IngramSpark displayed shipping issues and Blurb displayed ink issues, but Lulu was just right. With a collection as important as this, the little details became big experiences–from the placement of the lines on the cover to the type of paper used when printing, the elements in this collection came together to honor an important and accomplished writer, and we were excited to be part of this legacy.