Book Cover Design: Islamic Economy and cover proposal for other books. Plus a PR text.

 


 
 

Here are some samples of a proposal I made for the covers of the Ajaman Municipality report, and also of a book for the Dubai Culture Strategic Plan report, and  a text I wrote as part of the PR we do in certqin ocassions to promote the development of the section, hey, somebody has to do it!

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This is a text I wrote for a PR on our section awards:


Asian Media Awards for DMI publications confirm right path for UAE media


Winning awards and competitions establish credibility and put you on the path to influencer status says Luis Chumpitaz.




The latest in a lustrous sequence of recognitions, two awards has been given to DMI works in the category of magazine infographics in the latest edition of the WAN IFRA Asian Media Awards. This is not more than the fruitful result of the development Luis Chumpitaz, managing director of the publishing and infographics department at DMI Press Sector, have been building along for almost a decade, pioneering the development of infographics in the Middle East in the sector of newspapers and editorial publications.
The awards were given to an infographic about the emirate of Ajman and a second one about the life of Sheikh Zayed and his approach to sustainability.


As for winning awards, this is a position where Luis has been for a while; having a lead role in a team that achieved the first international recognition for an infographic work published in the Middle East, he is aware of the responsibility implied in your role when you are in the spotlight of recognition, and for him, influencer is more than a fancy word, is a term he consider not very far from mentorship of talent and something he calls “inspiration management”, as he feels as part of his role to nurture and encourage the successful- and pragmatic-harnessing of the creative spark in every team member, as this is the lifeblood of what they offer in each graphic project.


Usually we manage more than one project at a time, Luis recognizes, each one with its own timescale, a position which bring to him many challenges that he confronts by applying an agile approach to the way the team works. First, the team relies in its multidisciplinarity to achieve unbiased perception of what is needed to resolve the challenges ahead. Second, team members have a degree of autonomy that allow them to extract the maximum advantage of their personal skills, something that is possible encouraging personal and professional development in each one of the members, as well as in research and development. Third, the autonomy of the members needs a high level of coordination and communication, for each one to stay tuned at any stage of the overall development of any of the projects.


This is not something you make up from one day to another. Luis Chumpitaz’s liaison with infographic and publishing dates back to 2000, when he started as manager of the infographic section in a local newspaper group in Latin America. Since then, he has created and managed teams that produced outstanding works in the field of infographics, data visualization and publishing across diverse countries and languages. He has achieved this consistency in excellence trough a mindset focused in a continuous evolving philosophy in the industry, being open to try new ideas and paradigms with each new challenge, looking for innovative ways to create products that are in synchrony with what the organization requires, always focusing in what is ultimately important to him: quality in visual communication in a field that is required to reinvent itself continuously.


Luis has been honeying the way he do this in case per case basis, but his work philosophy is the far from being a formula; actually quite the opposite, flexibility and innovation are for him the secret keywords.


The approach Luis has found more suitable to the diverse range of projects he find along the way is one based in co-creation. The versatility he finds in letting the customer participate in the creational side of the process is a factor he qualifies as “refreshing”. Since every project has its focus in the solution of a particular problem, Chumpitaz thinks the best “specialist’ is the client itself, and is this idea, going hand in hand with the expertise that his team brings to the table, the best way to deliver products uniquely suitable to the needs of the client.


Besides the customer, Luis believes firmly that any great product is a team effort, but more importantly, he has a broad and dynamic-agile- definition of a team that he likes to compare to the ensemble of an orchestra where, along the process, different “actors/players” enter and participate in small or bigger roles at different points, according to what is needed, being his role to coordinate all the members’ skills and knowledge to achieve the optimal utilization of such assets. This is another part of the successful management of a project, Luis asserts, requiring the participation of all the people who has a say during the process, from art directors to pagemakers and designers, including clients, outsourced providers, and team members.
All this is well and good, but you need to make your product valuable and unique to appeal to he market and any prospective client. Visual communication is everywhere, but good visual communication is harder to find, and this is what Luis offers, placing emphasis in the design of the information, the directness of the visual content trough color, form and storytelling, subscribing unconditionally the motto “clear is best”. With this value, what he produces is the end result of an endeavor characterized by its progressive carving of a segmented niche. His clients are usually, he notes, eager for their content to be communicated trough the clarity, simplicity and effectiveness of the infographics and publications made by his team. For Luis, this implies the print media has made the full circle, being transformed once again in a special object, made for reading as well as for visual delight, in a range each time more and more far away from mass production and consumption; infographics are tailored to the specific requirements of the client, customizing the refined product, something to which small team units are more effective for.