Our Portland Story

Meet Sarah

meldel — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 01:16:23 +0000

No book would be complete without an editor. With 77 stories and authors to work with, this project was no small task. The editor had to take into consideration the fact that many contributors may have had no previous writing background. Because of the personal nature of these stories, it was also vital that the “voice” of the author relating the story was retained. Such are the challenges that faced Sarah Koch, volunteer editor of Our Portland Story. She has taken on the task with professionalism and grace. Here is a bit more about Sarah:

Sarah Koch, aka Julia Sarah Koch, is a second- (on her father’s side) and third- (on her mother’s) generation Portlander. Not surprisingly, she has a deep affection for–some would say a mild obsession with–all things Portland. By the age of 12, Sarah had already revealed a tendency towards nit-pickiness that would earn her both friends and enemies. Even so, it took her a couple of decades to recognize and accept her true calling as a proofreader and copyeditor. Once she did, however, the days of riding the rails and living a carefree existence ended. (That last sentence is made up. She never rode the rails, nor has she ever been particularly carefree.)

Her life as a freelance proofreader, copyeditor, researcher, and writer has proved very satisfying. As a writer, she may be most proud of her “A Henry James Filmography,” an ongoing project first published in the Henry James Review (Fall 1998), which melded her love of James with international TV and big screen adaptations of his work. Both the love affair and the resulting project came to life while Sarah was earning an MA in literature at Portland State University.

Currently, besides her regular work and–joyously–volunteering as editor to Our Portland Story, she is working on a series of suspense novels built around a character suspiciously similar to the author, set in Portland and the surrounding area. As anyone reading OPS can tell, this town has a rich history and a remarkable character for any author to draw upon.

OPS thanks Sarah for all of her hard work!

Design Process

meldel — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 01:15:31 +0000

(sample pages, left: story by Patsy Moreland, page design by Sean Garrison; middle: story by Elizabeth Harrington, page design by Veronika Valentová; right: story by Miriam Feder, page design by Jacqueline Bos)

Our Portland Story (OPS) has been actively seeking local design talent since January of 2009. Over the course of the past seven months, OPS has been meeting with several designers a week, going over the project and matching them up with a story that fits their particular design/illustration style and interests. Since all 77 stories get a page in the book, and every page in the book is assigned a different designer, this has been a long, but rewarding process. There are 11 pages yet to be assigned to a designer, so if you are a designer interested in contributing a page, please contact melissa@ourportlandstory.com.

Portland photographer, Bryan Hoybook, met up with OPS page designer, Matt Morasky, of Citizengraphics to document Matt’s creative process for his OPS page on camera. Matt was assigned the story “Old Town Chinatown Chinese” by Brian T. Wilson. This story takes you on a journey through Chinatown’s various food offerings complete with the author’s recommendations. The author writes: “I quite often hear people say that Chinatown is disappearing, but we still have more than a half-dozen restaurants to choose from daily. Many only eat in Chinatown for lunch, but there is a notable amount that go for a morning or Sunday dim sum. I often suggest families go to House of Louie or, for someone looking specifically for dim sum, I direct them to Wong Kee. For friends and residents, I often do a cheer for Mandarin House…”

Matt concepted and sketched several ideas that combined photos he took, with the text and images that Brian provided, and Chinese restaurant menu scans. Matt’s final design concept (shown above, right) was described by him as the following: “…this approach plays off the travel/tourist guide. Speech balloons carry the copy like a narrative. In the background, the city blocks that make up Chinatown are constructed of cut paper copies of Chinese food menus (taken from the Golden Horse). The top title is an illustrated version of the Old Town Chinatown MAX stop.”

Thanks to Matt, for letting us take a peek into your design process and thanks to Bryan for the photography. Please view a sampling of other completed OPS pages on our facebook page.

Our Portland Story 2008/2009 Book is in Production

meldel — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 22:03:55 +0000

Now that all stories have been selected for OPS 08/09, the project has moved into the design/production phase. Each chosen contributor to the book will receive a full page that will be uniquely designed to reflect their story, (see samples below). The pages are currently being designed collectively by many different Portland designers to help showcase local design and creative talent. If you are interested in helping in the design process, please review the Designers sought page.

image credits: Top left, sketches by Matt Morasky, www.citizengraphics.com; top right, page design by Walker Cahall, www.waltronic.net; bottom left illustration by Elizabeth Perlas, sugapress.etsy.com; bottom right, page design by Jacqueline Bos, www.jacquelinekari.com