Derek George

Derek George - Designer

Austin, TX, USA

Experienced book cover and interior designer specializing in art, photography, cooking, music, history, and entertainment books.

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Overview

I have been designing books for over 18 years and I still love doing it. I learned book design at the MIT Press where I worked for five years and at the University of Texas Press where I was senior designer for eleven years. More recently, I was Art Director at Familius Books before striking out on my own. My work has won many awards and has been included in many design industry shows, including the PRINT Magazine Regional Design Annual, the Designer Observer / AIGA 50 Books / 50 Covers competition, the Book Industry Guild of New York Book Show, the Bookbuilders of Boston New England Book Show, and the Association of University Presses Book, Jacket, and Journal Show.

Every book is unique and with every project I try to do what is best for that particular book.
Languages
English
Non-Fiction
Architecture
Art
Cooking, Food, Wine, & Spirits
Entertainment
History
Music
Photography
Fiction
Literary Fiction

Awards

  • PRINT Magazine Regional Design Annual (2015, 2013, 2012)
  • Design Observer / AIGA 50 Books / 50 Covers (2015, 2014)
  • Book Industry Guild of New York Book Show (2016, 2015, 2013)
  • American Association of University Presses Book, Jacket, and Journal Show (2019, 2018, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2006, 2005)

Work experience

Book Designer

Self-employed
May, 2019 – Present (almost 4 years)

Art Director

Familius
November, 2018 – May, 2019 (6 months)

Senior Book Designer

University of Texas Press
October, 2007 – November, 2018 (about 11 years)

Book Designer

MIT Press
May, 2002 – October, 2007 (over 5 years)

Portfolio (12 selected works)

The Making of Gone With The Wind

Steve Wilson

Gone With The Wind is one of the most popular movies of all time. To commemorate its seventy-fifth anniversary in 2014, The Making of Gone With The Wind presents more than 600 items from the archives of David O. Selznick, the film's producer, and his business partner John Hay "Jock" Whitney, which are housed at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. These rarely seen mat... read more

Gone With The Wind is one of the most popular movies of all time. To commemorate its seventy-fifth anniversary in 2014, The Making of Gone With The Wind presents more than 600 items from the archives of David O. Selznick, the film's producer, and his business partner John Hay "Jock" Whitney, which are housed at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. These rarely seen mat... read more

Yucatán: Recipes from a Culinary Expedition (William and Bettye Nowlin Series in Art, History, and Cultur)

David Sterling

Winner, James Beard Foundation Best Cookbook of the Year Award, 2015James Beard Foundation Best International Cookbook Award, 2015The Art of Eating Prize for Best Food Book of the Year, 2015The Yucatán Peninsula is home to one of the world's great regional cuisines. With a foundation of native Maya dishes made from fresh local ingredients, it shares much of the same pantry of ingredients and m... read more

Winner, James Beard Foundation Best Cookbook of the Year Award, 2015James Beard Foundation Best International Cookbook Award, 2015The Art of Eating Prize for Best Food Book of the Year, 2015The Yucatán Peninsula is home to one of the world's great regional cuisines. With a foundation of native Maya dishes made from fresh local ingredients, it shares much of the same pantry of ingredients and m... read more

101 Things I Learned in Architecture School

Matthew Frederick

101 THINGS I LEARNED IN ARCHITECTURE SCHOOL is a book that students of architecture will want to keep in the design studio and in their backpacks. It is also a book they may want to keep out of view of their professors, for it expresses in clear and simple language the things they tend to make murky and abstruse. These 101 concise lessons in design, drawing, the creative process, and presentat... read more

101 THINGS I LEARNED IN ARCHITECTURE SCHOOL is a book that students of architecture will want to keep in the design studio and in their backpacks. It is also a book they may want to keep out of view of their professors, for it expresses in clear and simple language the things they tend to make murky and abstruse. These 101 concise lessons in design, drawing, the creative process, and presentat... read more

All Tore Up: Texas Hot Rod Portraits

George Brainard

The Texas hot rod scene encompasses the exhaust, speed, rust, and chrome beloved not just by greasers and gearheads but also by families and pinup girls, bikers and rockabilly dolls, rockers and regular Joes. The Lonestar Rod & Kustom Round Up, one of America's premier car shows, attracts hot rod and custom car fans from around the world, bringing them to Austin every spring. George Brainard b... read more

The Texas hot rod scene encompasses the exhaust, speed, rust, and chrome beloved not just by greasers and gearheads but also by families and pinup girls, bikers and rockabilly dolls, rockers and regular Joes. The Lonestar Rod & Kustom Round Up, one of America's premier car shows, attracts hot rod and custom car fans from around the world, bringing them to Austin every spring. George Brainard b... read more

Fantastic Planets, Forbidden Zones, and Lost Continents: The 100 Greatest Science-Fiction Films

Douglas Brode

Whether you judge by box office receipts, industry awards, or critical accolades, science fiction films are the most popular movies now being produced and distributed around the world. Nor is this phenomenon new. Sci-fi filmmakers and audiences have been exploring fantastic planets, forbidden zones, and lost continents ever since George Méliès’ 1902 film A Trip to the Moon. In this highly ente... read more

Whether you judge by box office receipts, industry awards, or critical accolades, science fiction films are the most popular movies now being produced and distributed around the world. Nor is this phenomenon new. Sci-fi filmmakers and audiences have been exploring fantastic planets, forbidden zones, and lost continents ever since George Méliès’ 1902 film A Trip to the Moon. In this highly ente... read more

Future: A Recent History

Lawrence R. Samuel

The future is not a fixed idea but a highly variable one that reflects the values of those who are imagining it. By studying the ways that visionaries imagined the future—particularly that of America—in the past century, much can be learned about the cultural dynamics of the time.In this social history, Lawrence R. Samuel examines the future visions of intellectuals, artists, scientists, busin... read more

The future is not a fixed idea but a highly variable one that reflects the values of those who are imagining it. By studying the ways that visionaries imagined the future—particularly that of America—in the past century, much can be learned about the cultural dynamics of the time.In this social history, Lawrence R. Samuel examines the future visions of intellectuals, artists, scientists, busin... read more

The Seasons of the Robin (Mildred Wyatt-Wold Series in Ornithology)

Don Grussing

In a small nest in a large oak tree, the drama begins. A young American Robin breaks open his shell and emerges into a world that will provide the warmth of sunny days and the life-threatening chill of cold, rainy nights; the satisfaction of a full stomach and the danger of sudden predator attacks; and the chance to mature into an adult robin who'll begin the cycle of life all over again come ... read more

In a small nest in a large oak tree, the drama begins. A young American Robin breaks open his shell and emerges into a world that will provide the warmth of sunny days and the life-threatening chill of cold, rainy nights; the satisfaction of a full stomach and the danger of sudden predator attacks; and the chance to mature into an adult robin who'll begin the cycle of life all over again come ... read more

Super Black: American Pop Culture and Black Superheroes

Adilifu Nama

Winner, American Book Award, Before Columbus Foundation, 2012Super Black places the appearance of black superheroes alongside broad and sweeping cultural trends in American politics and pop culture, which reveals how black superheroes are not disposable pop products, but rather a fascinating racial phenomenon through which futuristic expressions and fantastic visions of black racial identity a... read more

Winner, American Book Award, Before Columbus Foundation, 2012Super Black places the appearance of black superheroes alongside broad and sweeping cultural trends in American politics and pop culture, which reveals how black superheroes are not disposable pop products, but rather a fascinating racial phenomenon through which futuristic expressions and fantastic visions of black racial identity a... read more

City on Fire: The Explosion that Devastated a Texas Town and Ignited a Historic Legal Battle

Bill Minutaglio

First published in 2003, City on Fire is a gripping, intimate account of the explosions of two ships loaded with ammonium nitrate fertilizer that demolished Texas City, Texas, in April 1947, in one of the most catastrophic disasters in American history.

First published in 2003, City on Fire is a gripping, intimate account of the explosions of two ships loaded with ammonium nitrate fertilizer that demolished Texas City, Texas, in April 1947, in one of the most catastrophic disasters in American history.

Welcome to Utopia: Notes from a Small Town

Karen Valby

In Welcome to Utopia, quintessential American stories—the mom anxiously sending her sons to Iraq and Afghanistan, teens longing to escape the familiar, old-timers trying to hold onto their roots while the world around them changes—come to life on every page. Karen Valby’s extraordinary capacity to observe and empathize helps us understand that whether we live in a small town like Utopia, Texas... read more

In Welcome to Utopia, quintessential American stories—the mom anxiously sending her sons to Iraq and Afghanistan, teens longing to escape the familiar, old-timers trying to hold onto their roots while the world around them changes—come to life on every page. Karen Valby’s extraordinary capacity to observe and empathize helps us understand that whether we live in a small town like Utopia, Texas... read more

The Surprising Design of Market Economies (Constructs)

Alex Marshall

The "free market" has been a hot topic of debate for decades. Proponents tout it as a cure-all for just about everything that ails modern society, while opponents blame it for the very same ills. But the heated rhetoric obscures one very important, indeed fundamental, fact—markets don't just run themselves; we create them.Starting from this surprisingly simple, yet often ignored or misundersto... read more

The "free market" has been a hot topic of debate for decades. Proponents tout it as a cure-all for just about everything that ails modern society, while opponents blame it for the very same ills. But the heated rhetoric obscures one very important, indeed fundamental, fact—markets don't just run themselves; we create them.Starting from this surprisingly simple, yet often ignored or misundersto... read more

The Eye of the Mammoth: Selected Essays (Jack and Doris Smothers Series in Texas History, Life, and Culture)

Stephen Harrigan

In four decades of writing for magazines ranging from Texas Monthly to the Atlantic, American History, and Travel Holiday, Stephen Harrigan has established himself as one of America’s most thoughtful writers. In this career-spanning anthology, which gathers together essays from two previous books—A Natural State and Comanche Midnight—as well as previously uncollected work, readers finally have... read more

In four decades of writing for magazines ranging from Texas Monthly to the Atlantic, American History, and Travel Holiday, Stephen Harrigan has established himself as one of America’s most thoughtful writers. In this career-spanning anthology, which gathers together essays from two previous books—A Natural State and Comanche Midnight—as well as previously uncollected work, readers finally have... read more

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