The prestige of a Sotheby’s catalogue is an intrinsic part of the dialogue when proposing to a consignor they submit their private collection or estate to go under the hammer with the great auction house.

Sotheby’s design team will create a mocked-up proposal and when an accord is reached,  the production designers will follow the design specs of the abbreviated prototype to build the full-on catalogue. This could be a single volume or multiple case-bound volumes. Coordinating with an offshore production team the onshore production designer’s role is to oversee design for each and every spread; import & format text and artwork, and ensure that the digital files are ultimately suitable for physical print output whilst remaining true to the creative vision of the original proposal… and critically that we bring this all in under deadline, year in year out without fail.

The examples above are a handful of the catalogues I personally built (excepting Mellon, a multiple-volume case-bound of epic proportions that was a team effort-  in which a designer in our layout team took on a volume each). On rare occasions, Sotheby’s will engage an outside design company and the proposal for Glazed was designed by the Brooklyn based creative studio Franklyn. 

A Rock & Roll Anthology: From Folk to Fury was not a single owner but rather a various-owner rock ‘n roll themed sale I enjoyed having a free-hand with: I got to put Jimmy Page on the front cover, and the Beatles as faux endpaper spreads… score!