Martin Sorge’s new cookbook Great Bakes debuted this Tuesday, and I had the pleasure of speaking with him about its design. I met Martin a couple of years ago via his agent Sally Ekus, who recommended me to design his proposal. We immediately hit it off and began working together. Martin was an ideal design partner: engaged, curious, open, and thoughtful.
He brought this same energy to Great Bakes when it was picked up by Agate Publishing, and dived in enthusiastically to help bring the book to life with his creative team: Morgan Krehbiel (designer), Morgan Ramberg (illustrator), Kevin Miyazaki (photographer), Mollie Hayward (food stylist), Karis Stucker (assistant food stylist), and Jane Seibold (production manager).
Among the topics we covered were how a designed proposal helped his pitch stand out, how he navigated the design process as a first-time author, and how his cats enjoyed the photoshoot in his Chicago home. You can learn more about Great Bakes from Martin in person—he’s currently on tour in the US and Canada (dates and locations here), so please come out to say hi and buy a book.
Many thanks to everyone who tuned in, and please let me know via comments or DM if you’d like to see more live video content.
PS: Today’s Substack Live is part of paid subscriber benefits, and if you’ve been thinking of becoming a paid Headnotes subscriber, now’s the time—I’m offering 20% off annual subscriptions through August 14th!
Thanks so much for reading, and I hope to see you back here in two weeks when I’ll be paying tribute to Debbie Berne and her new book, Cookbooking.
