Not many people are fortunate enough to work with two talented designers such as Rudi Backart and Rich Nickel . I was. Rudi and I have been friends for years and have always talked about “doing a book” together, so when I launched this project almost 4 years ago it was a given that she would design the book. She also designed the fine art posters which complement this book. In the course of this project she moved from Chicago to Albuquerque, a distance that, in the end, proved difficult to overcome for a book of this kind where all the images have a certain order to them. After creating the initial concept designs, she graciously turned the project over to Rich, who expanded on her ideas and put the finishing touches on this book. Now I had 2 absolutely genius designers on this project! How cool is that!

Rich and I both have been consulting her by email and PDF files for her input on things while we are here - the dust jacket, an insert for the book and all of the other things we have been doing. We only wish she were here with us! I can only imagine how much fun the 3 of us would have here! But sadly work comes first...even though she is working with us from a far...so since she's not here to be photographed in all of the work / fun we thought we would put a picture of her and her horse, Ana, up in the spirit of showing the entire process and how many people it takes to produce a book of this size. But I still think she should catch the next flight out. Thanks Rudi!