As Within, So Without, Steven Hodel

When New York Times bestselling author Steve Hodel began preparing As Within, So Without, he needed a designer who could handle not only complex typography and image-heavy layouts, but also the responsibility of presenting decades of research with clarity and respect. I was commissioned to design and typeset the full publication, which ultimately grew into a 212-page illustrated volume.

The book sits at the intersection of forensic investigation, art history, and archival research, so the design needed to balance clarity, restraint, and visual pacing.

Before designing, I spent time studying both the manuscript and Hodel’s earlier work to understand the tone and narrative structure. Typography and layout decisions were guided by historical context and readability, with Adobe Caslon selected for its authority and period character. The interior was built in Adobe InDesign using structured grids, master pages, anchored figures, and print-ready production workflows, and prepared for Amazon KDP publication.

Beyond the technical work, this project was personally meaningful to me. Hodel’s decades-long investigation is not just a book; it is an effort to document truth, preserve evidence, and give historical context to events that shaped lives and families. Contributing to a work of that nature, where design helps communicate research of such depth and human weight, made the project especially important to me.

The final result was a fully typeset, print-ready, full-color publication prepared for paperback and hardcover production, delivered after several rounds of structural refinement and image restoration coordination.