DOSE
Publication Design · 2026
The problem
For my publication design class, we had full freedom to build a publication around any topic — no client, no brief beyond making something real, printed, and bound by hand. The hard part wasn't finding a subject. It was picking one big enough to fill a publication but personal enough to stay interested in for the remainder of the semester.
For my publication design class, we had full freedom to build a publication around any topic — no client, no brief beyond making something real, printed, and bound by hand. The hard part wasn't finding a subject. It was picking one big enough to fill a publication but personal enough to stay interested in for the remainder of the semester.
The Insight
Third wave coffee had been a genuine interest of mine for a while — I used to subscribe to Standart and always admired how much care went into their editorial layouts. Grand Rapids also happens to have a serious coffee scene and an unreasonable number of pigeons, so a scavenging, coffee-cup-toting pigeon felt like the right mascot: a little scrappy, a little local, impossible to take too seriously.
Third wave coffee had been a genuine interest of mine for a while — I used to subscribe to Standart and always admired how much care went into their editorial layouts. Grand Rapids also happens to have a serious coffee scene and an unreasonable number of pigeons, so a scavenging, coffee-cup-toting pigeon felt like the right mascot: a little scrappy, a little local, impossible to take too seriously.
The Solution
DOSE is a print publication profiling my favorite coffee shops around Grand Rapids, paired with short explainers on third wave coffee for readers who want more context. The wordmark and cover pigeon started as linocuts from a printmaking class I was taking at the same time, then the cover itself was pulled as a citrus oil transfer — so the final object is part publication design, part printmaking experiment. I hand-bound every copy.
DOSE is a print publication profiling my favorite coffee shops around Grand Rapids, paired with short explainers on third wave coffee for readers who want more context. The wordmark and cover pigeon started as linocuts from a printmaking class I was taking at the same time, then the cover itself was pulled as a citrus oil transfer — so the final object is part publication design, part printmaking experiment. I hand-bound every copy.
What I Learned
Publication design gets overwhelming fast — every spread is its own set of decisions, multiplied across dozens of pages. But holding the finished, hand-bound book made every one of those decisions feel worth it. Working analog for the cover also reminded me how much a physical process can shape a digital layout — the linocut textures ended up influencing choices I made throughout the rest of the book.
Publication design gets overwhelming fast — every spread is its own set of decisions, multiplied across dozens of pages. But holding the finished, hand-bound book made every one of those decisions feel worth it. Working analog for the cover also reminded me how much a physical process can shape a digital layout — the linocut textures ended up influencing choices I made throughout the rest of the book.
The Process
DOSE's cover began as a hand-carved linocut, was pulled onto the cover stock with a citrus oil transfer, and finished with hand-binding: turning the publication into as much of a physical object as an editorial one.
Final Work