Contact
e.steve.newman@gmail.com
615/356-8334
About Me
I have been blessed to have worked under two incredibly talented creative directors. I began my design career under the tutelage of Phil Sankey, who had been a graphic designer in a New York design firm. He and his brother moved to Birmingham to start Sankey2, an advertising agency. The agency was small, enabling me to have a hand in every design facet of the business. An affinity for logo design, corporate identity, and corporate brochures led me more into the non-advertising side of design, where I became skilled in managing large projects.
At Sankey2, we worked on a number of projects for Southern Living and its book division, Oxmoor House. The head of Oxmoor House left for Nashville to run the collectibles department of Heritage House, a division of Southwestern/Great American. I designed promotional packages for many of their collectibles series. When Heritage House began a series of annual Christmas books as collectibles, I was selected to design them. And that is when I met Mary Cummings, the editor of the book series.
When Mary became Editorial Director of Favorite Recipes Press (FRP), another division of Southwestern, she asked me to become Art Director of their new in-house design department. Mary had a profound influence on me and also provided a different perspective than Phil had.
One of my first tasks was creating a corporate logo and identity for FRP, allowing FRP to be an umbrella for a more diverse selection of books and projects. As Senior Art Director, I managed other art directors, graphic designers, type compositors, and freelance illustrators and photographers. I also designed award-winning books and other publications for a wide variety of clients.
Among the various FRP imprints, I served as art director for books in the Historic Hospitality series showcasing America’s iconic hotels, resorts, cultural attractions, and historic destinations, including Biltmore Traditions, a coffee table cookbook for the Biltmore House and Gardens. I also art directed publications for Central Market, a high-end grocery chain in Texas, including Foodie, a quarterly publication, and a bimonthly cooking school newsletter. I designed the Central Market Cooks cookbook as well.
Even with all the different design and art direction projects I have been a part of, my first love is still designing books. That was the impetus for this website: to highlight a few of the many books I have designed and to showcase some of my current books. Books that I have designed have won the James Beard Foundation Award, the IACP Julia Child Award, and the international winner of the Gourmand World Cookbook Award.
I art directed and designed all the books shown here with two exceptions. In the Kitchen with Kids, an extensive project for The Association of Junior Leagues International, was a collaboration of the FRP design department. We teamed up to not only design the book, but also find the aprons, recruit the junior cooks, and run the multiple-bay photo shoot. Mary Cummings led the editorial team, making this book a true company-wide effort.
I art directed two books for Biltmore: the first was designed by Brad Whitfield, one of my favorite designers and friends; the second, Biltmore Traditions, was a design collaboration between Brad and me. It gave me a chance to work with Brad again and to have a lot of input into the design and final finesse of the pages.
I have extensive experience with books for nonprofit groups to use in raising money for community needs. Four of the books shown are for Junior Leagues, and a percentage of sales of two of the newest books, Feeding Memphis and Feeding Charleston, with author Mike Glasgow, is donated to food banks in the respective cities.
With twenty years of experience art directing and designing books, I can help you with any book project you may have. I also can arrange for editorial, photography, and printing services.
