Thursday, September 18, 2008



Today, we just finished our third book with noted artist, Jerry Gotkin. This was an exciting project for us to work again with Jerry on creating a showcase of his wife Marjorie Gotkin's "Still Life/Florals" watercolor and gouache. It is always a pleasure to work with Mr. Gotkin, and these were some incredibly beautiful images to design and layout. We recently published his Tall Ship Series and the Hospice by the Sea Gardens books.

Both Marjorie and Jerry Gotkin have been successful and well-known painters and artists for many years and some of Marjorie's works are in the Smithsonian Institution American Art Museum/Portrait Gallery Libraries. So it was an honor to help create this book for them.

Click here to view the book.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

This is quite a unique book and although it took a very long time; it was a wonderful project to work on. Picturia Press was contacted by a book group in Des Moines, Iowa that had been meeting once a month for over 20 years! During that time they had read and reviewed over books and wanted to share their book list with friends and family. But also during that time, this book group, called the Decem Doctae, or "ten learned women", have been meeting at each other's houses to review the books and to share a delicious lunch prepared by their host for the meeting. So in addition to sharing their recommended reading list, they wanted to share some of their recipes they've collected over the years. Additionally, one of the ladies from their group is a photographer, so naturally, our clients also wanted to include images of their beautiful city.

It took some time and management to collect all the different images, bios, book lists and recipes from 14 different women belonging to the group over the period of 20 years and then editing the book so it was cohesive and consistent. Let's just put it this way... everyone writes a recipe differently.

The end result is a book we love and are sure the client will love also. Click here to view the book.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008



What a week it has been...and it's only Tuesday! We were thrilled to complete this new photography book, "Cuatro: Four Continents and Four Years", by photographer Angel Herrero de Frutos from Sitges, Spain.

The difficult task for this project was choosing which photos to use from a selection of Angel's work; all his images were so visually stunning. It was difficult at best to only pick a few of them. This is a photography book about his journey through four different continents in as many years. Places like Spain, China, France and Inda. We were very happy to work with Angel Herrero on this piece and wish him continued success in showcasing such fine work.

Click here to view the book.

Sunday, September 7, 2008


Today, we finally finished part 2 of a set of 2 books on a mothers blog journaling her daughter's first year. Whew, it was a big one. The second book coming in at 425 pages. Again, very grateful to Blurb for their "slurping abilities - which allowed us to pull down all the entries including the images. If we weren't able to grab all the text and images that way, my client's child would be graduating college before we finished this book!

My client is not only creating a book to save and share with her child when she gets older, but is gifting the book to all the relatives and friends that they have all over the world. It's going to be a very special gift to all of them.

Click here to view the book

Friday, September 5, 2008


This was a wonderful book to work on, simply because it serves such a higher purpose. I was contacted by my client on behalf of the Metta Institute to create a book reflecting the journal writings of Mr. Frank Ostaseski. The founder of the Metta Institute, a teacher and a wonderful man who recently had several heart attacks and is now on the road to recovery. They plan to use the book as a gift to donors who attend the Journey of the Heart benefit for the Metta Institute in late September.

Although there was very little imagery, we worked with the text and used typography to call-out important or emotional points in Frank's journal and used color for more impact in delivering the overall message. This was a very quick turn around in order to make the deadline for the client, but it was a real pleasure to work with them and hope we can create more books for them in the near future. We wish them great success in their fundraising efforts.

Click here to see the book.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

I am very happy to say that things have been quite exciting around Picturia Press lately and we are growing daily. It's been quite difficult to get to the blog and post any updates when we have been so busy. But, we want to keep you updated on our work.

Currently Picturia Press is designing and finishing up seven (7 )new books! Here's just a sampling of images from some of the books that are getting ready to go to print soon.

The first one going to press hopefully by next week, is a lovely cookbook we've been working on for a Des Moines Ladies Book Group. While crazy and challenging to work with 14 ladies on one project....we are finally getting it done, and it will be a beautiful book when it's completed. In fact, I am ordering a copy of this book for myself, since the recipes are so delicious! Look for it to be published soon.


We are also finishing up and putting the final touches on a beautiful photography book for a wonderful artist, Angel Herrero de Frutos, from Barcelona. (http://www.pinopic.com). His work is stunning and elegant and we were really pleased and honored to be working on this portfolio for him. You should see a sampling of this book within the next week or two!

Still more to come out next week will be a beautiful book we have been working on for the people at the Metta Institute (http://www.mettainstitute.org) for a fund raising event. Beautiful people doing such great work in the hospice care field. It's an honor to help them create something to further build awareness of this cause.

And of course, it is our privilege to be working with Jerry Gotkin again in producing another photography portfolio of his wife's work of florals. This will be our third book for Jerry and we always enjoy the beautiful art work and the friendship that has grown out of working together so much. This book should be out within the next three weeks.

So as you can see, it's been quite hectic at Pictura Press, but all of the projects we have are so great to work on and we are happy to play a part in each and every one of these wonderful books!