Karl Janssen - The Ritz Collection

The Ritz Collection - Exhibition Catalog - Milwaukee Art Museum

128-page paperback book, 8.5 x 11", perfect-bound, printed mostly in black-and-white and partly in 4-color process

At the time I designed this book I was a full-time designer at the Milwaukee Art Museum, in a department of five designers. For this project the curator of the exhibition provided me with the manuscript and photographs for the book. All the works in the Ritz Collection are two-dimensional, and all the photographs were taken by the staff photographer at the Milwaukee Art Museum. I designed and typeset the entire book, provided a digital file to the printer, approved the blueline and color proofs, and presschecked the printed book pages.

The cover design and a few spreads are shown below, with explanations. I did several cover sketches, using different color paintings from the collection. The cover of the book features a painting by Paula Modersohn-Becker which is a favorite of Mrs. Ritz (for whom the collection is named).

Book and photography ©Milwaukee Art Museum. Design by Karl Janssen.

Specific images which are discussed in the essay are interspersed throughout the text in their appropriate locations (below). There is also a section of plates, some in color and some in black-and-white (the following spread). The collection is mostly German Expressionist prints, primarily black-and-white, but also features a number of full-color paintings. The budget for the book only included enough money for three color signatures, so I had to arrange the color and black-and-white images in the book so that they would fall on the appropriate pages.

In addition to the main essay, the book singled out specific works, with short essays (3 pages) written by various authors. Once again the challenge was to design and order the sections so that the maximum amount of color paintings could be reproduced in color.

All artwork and photographs in this site ©Karl Janssen, unless otherwise noted.
No reproduction of images without permission.