Dawn: 100 Years of Inspiring Baking is the story of their first century in business, told through the eyes of the Dawn team members and customers who have helped them rise to success. Combining personal anecdotes with a century of photography from the Dawn archives.

In 1920, a new donut shop named Dawn Donuts was making big news in Jackson, Michigan. They served donuts that were consistently delicious, with customer service that was simply unmatched.

A hundred years later, that donut shop has evolved into Dawn Food Products, Inc., one of the world’s leading manufacturers of bakery products and mixes. They continue to make the greatest donuts and provide the best possible service and supplies to their customers, but now there’re doing it on a global scale, delivering an extensive range of baking mixes in locations throughout the world.

Here’s where I come in 100 years later. Publisher and friend Lynne approached me with a book assignment, my answer was “YES” before she could finish asking. We would team up once again, to say I was excited would be an understatement. Lynne gave me my first book assignment ‘The Frog Prince’, a retelling of the classic Grimm Brothers tale. What made that project special was that I’d work with my wife, renowned illustrator Anne Yvonne Gilbert. Lynne gave us a lot room to create and has continued ever since.

After reading the Dawn manuscript I set out to define what the design should be. It had to show their roots yet show also how they have grown; it had to employ some aspects of their brand (colours palette etc.); it had to look fresh, fun and inviting; and most importantly it had to honour their employees and customers.

I wanted the pages to have lots of white space for the photographs to breathe and for ease in reading. Brand colours were used in sidebars, graphic elements, titles, subtitles, captions, and call outs. For continuity and historic value, I turned all the early photographs into sepia prints. Early portraits were also given a white border and a deckled edge. The modern full colour photographs were given a bit of enhancement, they were from the archive and some images had faded.

For typographic clarity and freshness, I used a san serif typeface throughout which set well against the white page.