Graphic Design

Anyone familiar with my passions for books, film, and photography might suspect (correctly) that I'm also quite interested in graphic design. That interest has been fueled in the last 20 years by my increasing need to create products that are as visually attractive and compelling as they are accurate and informative, together with the availability of ever-more-powerful and sophisticated software and hardware. When I started mocking up book designs a quarter-century ago, I printed out columns of electronic text on my dot matrix printer, cut the columns out, taped them to letter-sized paper, then added illustrations using scaled photocopies of photographic prints that I had printed in my darkroom. I gave these full-size mock-ups to the printer, along with the photographic prints, and waited to see the material transformed into (acceptable, I hoped) page proofs.

During my time as Managing Editor of Ploughman Publishing (a short-lived start-up of recession-victim Indian Valley Printing), I taught myself the basics of desktop publishing while laying out several publications with PageMaker. A few years later, at CHRS, I was asked to prepare a few more publications for print, using Microsoft Publisher. One day in 2003, after I had supplied a prime contractor with text and images for an interpretive wayside panel, the contractor asked if we could also supply the panel design. I put something together with PhotoShop (my preferred image-manipulation software), and that design was eventually featured on the panel mounted beside Book's Bridge in Perry County, Pennsylvania.

From that point on, CHRS has included "design" in its technical proposals for producing interpretive wayside panels, exhibit panels, brochures, illustrated histories, exhibit posters, portable and permanent exhibits, and historical markers. Around 2006, I adopted Adobe's InDesign as my design software (I still use PhotoShop for manipulating individual images). I have posted below, in reverse chronological order, some samples of my work. I've included a few items that I designed as a private contractor (Philip Ruth Editorial and Photographic Services). The books that I've designed in the last four years are cited on my Publications page.

It certainly streamlines the process of producing interpretive products when the person responsible for generating content (text and images) is the same person who designs their presentation. Whether or not that results in superior (or even passable) products, only customers and the viewing public can say.

Larkin's Bridge

Historical marker, 18"x18"

2010

CHRS, Inc. product, prepared for Toll Brothers.

To be installed beside the rebuilt Larkin's Bridge near Byers Station, Upper Uwchlan Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania

Multi-Panel Review of Quakertown Christian School Historical Eras

Set of 8 Interpretive Panels, each 24"x36"

2009

Installed in the main hallway of Quakertown Christian School, Quakertown, Pennsylvania (see photo below)

Crossing the Mon at Point Marion, Pennsylvania:
Two Methods, Two Eras

Interpretive Wayside Panel, 24"x72"

2009

CHRS, Inc. product, prepared for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, District 12-0

Installed beside the new bridge carrying Route 88 across the Monongahela River at Point Marion, Pennsylvania.

The Shohola Flats Archaeological Site

Interpretive Wayside Panel, 24"x36"

2009

CHRS, Inc. product, prepared for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, District 4-0

Installed in Shohola, near the new Shohola-Barryville Bridge spanning the Delaware River on the Pennsylvania-New York border.

Barryville's D&H Canal Connection, 1838-1898

Interpretive Wayside Panel, 24"x36"
2009

CHRS, Inc. product, prepared for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation

To be installed beside the new Shohola-Barryville Bridge spanning the Delaware River on the Pennsylvania-New York border.

The Dolph/Sunnyside Industrial District

Interpretive Wayside Panel, 24"x36"
2008

CHRS, Inc. product, prepared for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, District 4-0

To be installed in the Valley View Business Park, Jessup Borough, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania.

The Pohopoco Creek Bridge on the Pennsylvania Turnpike

Exhibit Poster, 36"x48"
2008

CHRS, Inc. product, prepared for the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission.

On display at several cultural centers in the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania.

The Dolph/Sunnyside Industrial District

Exhibit Panel, 40"x72"
2008

CHRS, Inc. product, prepared for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, District 4-0

On display at the Anthracite Heritage Museum, Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Remembering the Hilsher Farm

Exhibit Poster, 36"x48"
2006

CHRS, Inc. product, prepared for the Forino Company, LP.

Intended for display at residential development in Mount Joy Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

Recalling the Isaac Heintz Farmstead

Exhibit Poster, 36"x48"
2006

CHRS, Inc. product, prepared for unspecified developer.

Intended for display at residential development in Upper Macungie Township, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania.

Higginbotham Farm Archaeological Site

Historical marker

2006

CHRS, Inc. product, prepared for the Evesham Township Historic Preservation Commission and Orleans Corporation

Installed at Wellington Chase, Evesham Township, New Jersey

Business Before Pleasure at Miller Pond Reservoir

Interpretive Wayside Panel, 24"x36"
2005

CHRS, Inc. product, prepared for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, District 4-0

Installed beside Miller Pond Reservoir, Mount Pleasant Township, Wayne County, Pennsylvania.

The Getz Family's Sylvan View Dairy

Exhibit Poster, 36"x48"
2004

CHRS, Inc. product, prepared for D.R. Horton, Inc.

On display at Village Grande at Miller's Run development, along Harrisburg Pike in East Hempfield Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

Starrucca Historic District

Historical marker

2006

CHRS, Inc. product, prepared for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, District 4-0

Installed in Starrucca, Pennsylvania

Site of Book's Bridge, 1884-2003

Interpretive Wayside Panel, 24"x36"
2003

CHRS, Inc. product, prepared for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation

Installed beside rebuilt Book's Bridge, S.R. 3003 over Sherman's Creek, Jackson Township, Perry County, Pennsylvania.