Photographer Peter Vanderwarker came to Vern Associates with a collection of amazing photographs of Boston's Central Artery/Tunnel project. He wanted to create a publication that would showcase these images but he wasn't sure who the most appropriate audience would be or which publisher could best reach these readers.

Concept

Recognizing that the visceral appeal of Peter's photographs would enthrall younger readers, we recommended pitching it as a book for young adults and their parents. Peter's contagious enthusiasm for and long experience with the Big Dig was a great asset, so we asked him to write the text, too. Once we developed a cogent outline, proposal, and sample design, we placed the project with Little, Brown.

Design & Content

The Big Dig is a public-works project of staggering complexity and proportions. How could we distill so much often-technical information? Close work with the author to flesh out the book's goals and shape, followed by a careful edit of the manuscript, helped situate it to appeal to the broadest audience. Careful selection and sequencing of photographs and specially commissioned illustrations render the concepts more understandable.

Production

The book's high-energy visual appeal provides a foil for the astonishing photographs. Through design, the Big Dig's vast changes in scale, light, and matter become at once exciting and comprehensible. Vern Associates produced the book, delivering bound books to the publisher.

The Result

A colorful, informative, and entertaining way to acquaint readers with the reasons for the largest highway-engineering project in the history of the United States and the methods that made it possible.