works delivered

Below is a sample of original works I’ve delivered to various clients/employers.

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project 01

Spring of 2024 saw a wide range of book releases that got the purchasing team at Powell’s Books buzzing. This newsletter, which included original blurbs from each team member, was conceived, designed, and published company-wide by yours truly. Additionally, all copy outside of employee-specific blurbs is original to me.

NOTE: names of employees have been redacted to protect their identity.

My undertaking of this project was not a requirement or expectation of my job role. When the purchasing team expressed excitement, I pitched the idea of a seasonal newsletter to management. My goal was to channel the excitement of my coworkers into a tool for assisting booksellers in Powell’s Books’ retail locations.

The newsletter was highly engaged with and remains a helpful internal resource company-wide.

project 02

During my employment as a book buyer with Powell’s Books, one of the larger sections I purchased for was cookbooks. As the cookbook buyer, I was responsible for designing and drafting a monthly internal newsletter to assist booksellers and management in-store. With local and overarching food news and a featured recipe, the newsletters became a company-wide hit, fostering workplace community and rampant recipe-swapping.

A lot of love went into my newsletter drafting. It was a chance for me to regularly flex my formatting skills and a way to connect with my coworkers in both the corporate and retail spheres. These samples are pulled from my January 2024 newsletter and showcase the bulk of my monthly formula: 10-12 featured titles released that month with bespoke blurbs, local news, bestsellers, and a recipe from one of the featured titles. This is some of the work I’m most proud of.

project 03

Welcome to Powell’s! Before my days as a book buyer on the purchasing team, I was a lead bookseller in Powell’s Books’ flagship store in downtown Portland. Here, I coordinated our weekly story time readings, ran in-store author events, and captured social media content like this TikTok series where I took viewers on a tour through our giant color-coded rooms.

Yes, that is indeed my voice you’re hearing in the voiceovers. No, I am not a professional. But I do have a fair bit of mass comm (and theatre) training under my belt. The voiceover copy was written by me and filtered through Powell’s editorial team to ensure it matched our brand voice. Collectively, the TikToks I’ve generated for Powell’s Books’ account have garnered over 1.2 million views and over 100k comments.

works deliverable

Below is a small sample of original design and copy concepts to showcase my versatile abilities.

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design concept 01

NOTE: These examples are conceptual. Any resemblance to real-life entities or characters is purely coincidental.

This inspirational quote by yours truly is showcased in a timeless formula for any business or interest space with a social media presence, ideally one dedicated to artists/creators. The bold typeface and eye-catching hot pink color choices are perfect for grabbing a following’s attention.

I would argue the inclusion of a carousel with this post further explaining what the quote means: that nothing created is wholly original and why that’s a good thing. Isn’t it so nice that the things we create are inspired by someone/something else? With this knowledge, we can open ourselves up to creativity and get out of our own way.

design concept 02

Fran Lebowitz, American author, speaker, and queer icon, has said many things in her 73 years with us. One of my favorite quotes of hers: “Read before you think.” Similarly to design concept 01, this platform-lateral design could work well as a social post from a business/space with a book focus or even in-store branding/retail signage for a bookstore or newsstand.

One of my favorite parts about this piece is its simplicity. As eye-catching as the winding trail may be, the sans-serif font and inoffensive color scheme keep things muted and highly readable without sacrificing personality and fun.

copy concept 01

Call it a bit of wishful thinking (or manifestation), but the idea of a Barry Keoghan memoir is too good not to conceptualize.

Though Why I Drank the Bathwater may be fictitious, this copy remains professional, elegant, and fit for either high or low-profile authors. Copy stylized this way could also be used for any website’s “Meet Our Staff” page. Allowing a copywriter to draft informational segments like these can rid you of the awkward pangs associated with writing about yourself in 3rd person.

copy concept 02

“One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.”

Long ago, the Rings of Power were forged and their awesome might granted to the various races of Middle Earth. But when the One Ring, forged in secret by the Dark Lord, Sauron, falls into the unsuspecting hands of a simple hobbit from The Shire, an adventure of legendary proportions unfolds.

Pursued by the sleepless forces of Sauron, Frodo Baggins draws strength from his small band of cohorts as he ventures across Middle Earth on a mission to destroy the One Ring. But the Dark Lord is cunning, and the Ring breathes a will of its own. It will take all of the Fellowship’s collective power to ensure its wickedness is vanquished once and for all, but the cost of such a mission may prove too high to pay.

The Fellowship of the Ring is the first installment in J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1954 magnum opus, The Lord of the Rings. A classic through and through, readers the world over have fallen in love with the tantalizing magic of Middle Earth. Now, in this special edition, we can fall in love all over again together.

Through my background as a book professional, I’ve written countless blurbs. What I haven’t done (in an official capacity) is write compelling and sell-worthy back cover copy.

This concept was tricky. Writing intriguing copy about a story most people are already aware of poses some unique challenges. Some questions I had to ask myself were:

  • How do I cater to new readers of Tolkien’s work without talking down to existing ones?

  • How can I cram a narrative as vast as Tolkien’s Fellowship into a digestible portion?

  • Everyone knows what a hobbit is, right?

Back cover (or left interior dust jacket for you publishing professionals) copy should be concise enough to fit its scale but engaging enough to encourage readers to purchase the book it’s trying to sell. Here, I’ve shown that this is true for contemporary titles as well as larger-than-life ones.