Portfolio of Book Design

Since 1988 we have designed and produced hundreds of books for a variety of clients. We’ve done Bob Dylan, the Bible, and Allen Ginsberg (2 times). We have credits in books by Russian and American presidents, as well as comics, journalists, athletes, spies, evangelists, and oligarchs. The Google link below leads to some of our recent project credits.

Google Our Portfolio. Click Here.

Print On Demand

Through our Lightning Source (LSI) publisher account, we can produce both hardback and paperback books of the highest quality. Benefits of printing through LSI include distribution and fulfillment through Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, and other online booksellers. Below is the dust jacket mechanical from Philemon Matibe's memoir Madhinga Bucket Boy, a recent print on demand project we produced through LSI.

Madhinga Bucket Boy dust jacket

The Turnkey Book: A Case Study

Do What Works

We managed the publishing of Tom Luce’s Do What Works: How Proven Practices Can Improve America's Public Schools. Written by Luce and Lee Thompson, this book is a heavy nudge designed to wake up an underperforming educational system.

Luce's audience drove all design and manufacturing considerations. Since the intended audience were policy makers, legislators, and educators, it was important that the finished book capture immediate attention.

The cover design’s primary colors convey the book’s simple, but powerful message: do what works. The book design uses Minion, a classic serif, with Zine Display, a modern slab serif. Coupled with strong typography and page layout, the finished product represents Texas Type’s execution of Mr Luce’s original vision. A 6 x 9 hardback, Do What Works was printed and bound at Stinehour Press, Lunenburg, Vermont.

“I have had many book designers over the years. I have never had such a clean yet stylish design as that produced by Mark McGarry of Texas Type & Book Works. . . . In the fall of 2004, when I first saw the proofs of my Like a Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan at the Crossroads, I immediately called Robert Kimzey, the Managing Editor of PublicAffairs, to get the name of the designer; I wanted to make sure he was thanked in my acknowledgments. I didn’t want there to be a chance of his name being omitted. I’ve never done that before, but I hope to do it again. 

If I ever have another chance to work with Mr. McGarry, I will count myself very lucky, though I already am.”

Greil Marcus
Editor, Music Critic, Rolling Stone Magazine
Author, Like a Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan at the Crossroads


Complete Book Packaging Services

Texas Type & Book Works is a full-service book design and production company specializing in trade non-fiction, literary fiction and non-fiction, reference, illustrated history, and fine books of all shapes and sizes.

Our current and past clients include: PublicAffairs, Basic Books, Liberty Fund Books, Thomas Nelson, Da Capo Press, Oxford University Press, Doubleday, Texas Tech University Press, the University of North Texas Press, the Avalon Publishing Group, Rodale Books, and Southern Methodist University. Privately, we help organizations and individuals achieve their book objectives by managing critical aspects of their project.

The company was founded in 1998 by Mark McGarry and is located in Dallas, Texas.

Book Design Awards

David Hackett Fischer’s Liberty and Freedom: A Visual History of Americas Founding Ideas (Oxford University Press, 2005) received a Merit Award in the 4-color Scholarly and Reference Category at the New York Book Show. Texas Type & Book Works designed and produced the 864-page hardback, which included over 400 illustrations. The shows catalog included the following comments by the panel of judges which we delight in repeating: “Beautiful text design. Excellent page make-up and composition. . . . a good art program that is well-integrated with the text.” The 7 x 10 book was set in Caslon types and printed on 105 gsm coated stock by Asia Pacific Offeset.

Contact

For more information, or to discuss your book project, please
email Mark McGarry.

You may also contact us by phone at 214 793 6795.