The Moccasin and Agates
I was volunteering with the League of Minnesota Poets at a local book festival in 2018 when I was first approached about the opportunity to create the cover and book design for The Moccasin, LOMP's annual magazine. Amanda Bailey--the current president of the League of Minnesota Poets-- saw me checking the front pages of one of the books for sale. When she asked me what I was doing, I explained that I was a graphics student and learning book layout for one of my classes. It was a serendipitous moment. Amanda told me that she wanted to make substantive changes to the League's annual magazine, grow its readership, raise its profile...make it better. In six years of designing the magazine, I have done my part to make it happen.
The Moccasin (2018)
This is the first issue of The Moccasin that I worked on. In keeping with the theme of the front cover poem, "This Community Garden," I created an illustration of a vine and added black-eyed Susan blossoms. In the background, I placed a photo of a watermelon plant to provide visual texture. I used word wrap in InDesign so the poem would curve to the vine.
The Moccasin (2019)
For the 2019 issue of The Moccasin, I needed images that reflected the beach setting of the cover poem. I found free images of a beach and waves which I edited in Adobe Photoshop. I drew the sand dollar.
The Moccasin (2020)
In 2020 covers for The Moccasin no longer had to reflect the poem on the front cover, giving me greater latitude in the images I chose. I began designing this cover as COVID-19 descended. I found the image outside my front door--leaves caught in the snow.
The Moccasin (2021)
For the 2021 issue of The Moccasin, I created a composite of prairie photos.
In sensitivity to the appropriation of Native American culture (the word 'moccasin,' which was another name for the Showy Ladyslipper, is from the Ojibwa word 'makizin'), the League of Minnesota Poets changed the name of the annual magazine to "Agates" in 2022.
Agates (2022)
The editor chose my winning poem for the cover of the 2022 edition of Agates. I created a composite of two photos: a skeletal tree I photographed in Michigan and a sunset I captured in Minnesota. I also designed the logo for the new name, making the letters round to resemble water-smoothed rocks and adding curved lines to represent the banding on agates.
Agates (2023)
The 2023 issue of Agates has a photo I took of prairie grass in the background, the opacity was adjusted so it wouldn't compete with viewing the type. In 2023, Amanda Bailey, the League of Minnesota Poets president, decided to take Agates further, organizing poetry readings from the new issue in several venues throughout the state. I added an ISBN to the back cover.
With the other poets at a stop on the Agates Reading Tour: Sweet Reads, in Austin, Minnesota.