I made a coffee table book about my late grandfather George.

He passed away on December 24th, 2017 after an unanticipated stroke hospitalized him earlier that month.

Because of this, Christmas Eve remains a bittersweet occasion for my family. 

So, I decided to do something about it.

For Christmas of 2021, I used my talents to create a gift for the whole family: a collection of stories about my grandfather to be cherished every holiday season should those bittersweet feelings arise.

In November of the same year, I sent an email to everyone from the paternal side of my family asking them to share their favorite memories of my grandfather. Soon after, submissions started rolling in; some were full-length stories, while others were a compilation of many short anecdotes, quoteworthy moments, and general musings.

The challenge I faced, as many in the print advertising business understand, is that words on paper cost money.

Sometimes, lots of money.

When you’re arranging a print order of sentimental books for the whole family on a shoestring, grocery store employee budget—or persuading new business to try your product or service with a direct mailer—every word counts!

On a webpage like this, the cost of me going on a brief tangent is only as high as the potential loss in attention of the person reading. Monetarily, it costs me nothing to ramble to you online.

But in print? Every word, every phrase, and every punctuation is on the page because they were proven effective through countless tests and traced returns.

No advertisment should be complete guesswork in an era where we can prove which principles work and which don’t—at least to the extent a copywriter can help it.

With this book, I didn’t want to waste print space either.

I ultimately narrowed down my family’s submissions to forty-two pages. I consolidated the quotes and small anecdotes into single entries, all while preserving the written voice of each entrant. For the illustrations, I commissioned my talented brother Henry.

I’ve included a slideshow of the full book below. You can also click here to access a PDF version.