John Isaacs Design is a small creative studio with a broad focus. Founded in New York in 1991, and now located in Claverack NY, in the heart of the Hudson Valley, JID offers conceptual, editorial, design, and production expertise for a wide range of print and digital projects to professional, business, and institutional clients.

We train an attuned and cosmopolitan eye on branding and publicity programs and the design and production of books and catalogues.

John Isaacs, Creative director
Enid Futterman, Editorial director
Shawn Soares-Kern, Studio director

We design complete identity programs and develop rollout and ongoing campaigns reflecting the persona of businesses and nonprofits large and small. Effective and elegant logos and visual language are coordinated for consistency in stationery, corporate literature, print and online promotion, and signage.

Serving commercial and institutional clients and campaigns, we conceptualize, create, and coordinate design, copywriting, editorial, and front-end development for print and digital advertising, mailers, brochures, catalogues, posters, and billboards.

We’ve developed and designed numerous—often complex—books, particularly on contemporary art, philosophy, and personal memoir. To every project, for major and small publishers alike, we bring a clear awareness of the interplay among the various components of publication design: concept, strategy, cost, structure, style, materials, and — critically — the vital relation of text and image, executed without gratuitous embellishment.

We apply the same exacting considerations that govern book design to the development of catalogues: years of professional experience in organizing content; impeccable copywriting and editing; a fine eye for typography, layout, and the impact of illustration; and expert production know-how.

Over the years, we’ve created award-winning print and online magazines from scratch, on topics as diverse as spirituality, environmentalism, offbeat fashion, and community. From the literary to the local, we know what it takes to make a magazine compelling: unique content and striking design.

Whether it’s a label on a bottle, a box of baklava, bag of catnip, jewel-case liner, or logo on a bus, packaging is paramount. We bring an awareness of client and consumer aspirations, and finely-honed typographic and illustration skills to such projects, providing simple, stylish, and timeless solutions.

Some stuff doesn’t fit in any established design category, but we’re happy to take it on, be it a local alternative currency, visual identity for an epic song cycle, a campaign to save the incandescent light bulb, awareness-raising for a major university, a digital wayfinding system for our hometown, a planning concept for our home hamlet, or something as simple but critical as a (proposed) political logo.

Books, catalogues, branding, publicity, and websites for established and new clients … see more in NEWS.