Do you see yourself as a designer, historian, archivist or a cultural archaeologist?
I see myself as all of those descriptions including teacher, author, and writer. My primary career for thirty years was as a freelance illustrator and designer. In addition to doing that work, I pursued book publishing, had gallery shows of my work, did some public art pieces and lectured extensively. I loved and still like the idea of doing a bit of everything and being multi-disciplined. This was not a popular idea at the time I was doing it in my field but it is now what we encourage our students to pursue.
What is your biggest challenge as Executive Editor for TASCHEN America?
Keeping deadlines and rejecting proposals. We get so many great ideas but most are not appropriate for us. It’s hard to pass on many of them and have to suggest they seek out other publishers.
What was your favorite TASCHEN book to work on?
Los Angeles, Portrait of a City was a great project to see published mostly because it was subject matter I was very familiar with having researched images of the city for decades. Also the fact that it was the first book to show the photographic history of the city from the first known photo from 1862 to the most current images of the city. I tried to find pictures that no one had seen before and succeeded! There was so much terrific stuff we could have done five volumes. Also the Grannis book. I was really happy to bring Leroy Grannis fame and fortune in the final years of his life.