THE ROAD TO PUBLISHING PART 2

In part one on the road to publishing, we covered how to get the book deal. Now that I signed the contract, it was time to realize the full book.

The first step after I signed with Abrams was to map out the shooting schedules. I knew I wanted it to be a catalog of select works divided into distinct sections: interiors, furniture, art, and textiles. It would also be part memoir, with a deeper look at the process behind the work…the design decisions and how each facet of my practice came to be.

My original plan was to have my long time collaborator and uber talented photographer Nicole Franzen shoot all the interiors, which she did mostly, flying around the country with me capturing each house for the book, but the day before we were supposed to shoot Mandy’s house, the Altadena fires spread right through their property, burning down two of the structures and damaging the rest. We had shot her house previously with Laure Joliet with plans to publish with Architectural Digest but were able to use those photos for the book instead. (We then reshot the house with AD once they were able to move back in about a year later). I also always knew I wanted Joseph Bradshaw to shoot all the furniture. I wanted the furniture section to be set apart in layout and photographic style so it felt more like a gallery, showcasing the design and detail of each piece. We flew Joey in across multiple shoots and backgrounds to capture all the images for this section right in our studio.

Not surprisingly, capturing my work this way, creating these images and collaborating with my favorite photographers, was honestly the most fulfilling part of the entire process.

Now I had to fit writing a book into my already very full schedule and life, which meant I was writing whenever and wherever I could. The best times were at our lake cottage, but other times were on the sidelines of lacrosse tournaments and in indoor water parks.

Writing was its own journey. Not nearly as satisfying or instinctual for me….