On a sunlit afternoon in Northern Connecticut, the voice of Catherine Casalino spoke over the phone from New York City, discussing her path to designing success. She passionately and gleefully spoke about what books and graphic designing means to her, and how it has impacted her chosen career.
Casalino didn’t originally intend on being a graphic designer. However, growing up in a family of musicians and artists, she was naturally drawn to the arts and fell into the world of design and photography during her high school years at South Windsor High School.
“When I was at South Windsor High, I had a really amazing photography teacher, so I had always enjoyed photography and kind of pursued that on the side,” Casalino said.
Photography opened the door for her to graphic design and digital art.
It wasn’t until her post-college years that Casalino first started to really indulge in design. She enrolled in a program at New York University about publishing book and magazine design. She drifted towards magazine design, because it was interesting to her at the time, and this later developed into book design.
After 7 years of working for various publishing houses, such as Random House and Simon & Schuster, she opened her own design house, Casalino Designs, in 2016.
Considering the book-designing community isn’t large, “you are always learning something new, whether that’s lettering or illustration or image research. Every project I work on is really different,” Casalino explained.
Every step she takes in her career is another learning experience for her, which is something she appreciates about her occupation.
Developing her knowledge is something that is integrated into the job, and even designing jobs have taught her something new.
Working on Lady Gaga’s book Lady Gaga x Terry Richardson, published in 2011, taught her that not all books need to have editing, or lettering, and producing something organic can be just as iconic.
“I like when there’s some kind of concept behind things. I think that it’s not enough for it to just be beautiful or appropriate, you know, graphically balanced,” Casalino said.
The challenge she faces is bringing a concept to life on covers, which is something she always tries to voice in her work.
One of her biggest recent projects was the illustrating of book covers for the American Fiction movie, which satirises the publication industry that Casalino has worked in.
Being a book designer comes with its challenges, but also its rewards. Casalino talked about how her biggest motivation everyday is the people she is surrounded by in her career.
“The book design community is pretty small, so a lot of us know each other, and that’s really motivating.”
Seeing books designed by friends, movie covers, or even magazines, inspires her and motivates her to pursue what she loves everyday. Living in New York City also contributes to her creative inspiration.
“There’s so much creativity and beauty in the city, and it’s constantly changing. I walk down the street and there are like, art galleries and street art, and it’s like everywhere there’s visual information coming at you. That’s inspiring,” Casalino commented.
Approaching 20 years in the designing business, inspiration tends to still strike her daily, especially in her environment and community of designers. Taking advantage of her creative liberty and opportunities in her adolescence benefitted her for her future, a future she didn’t realize was ahead of her. Following her passion became something of a miracle for her, because she can do what she loves for a living.
“Following that positive vibe has always just been really helpful in my career.”
For all young artists, Casalino encourages the urge to follow that positive vibe as well; it can become a path to success.
