Writer Justin Glanville, artist Julia Kuo and designer Lee Zelenak have teamed up to release a self-publish book entitled “new to Cleveland: a Guide to (Re)Discovering the City.” The result of their collaboration is an elegant, informative, smart and casual marvel.
In it, Glanville writes, “To live in Cleveland is in some ways an endorsement of a different set of values: a kind of DIY, community-oriented ethos that’s not too concerned with what the coasts think. Living in Cleveland is a bit nonconformist.”
The book itself has been put together in what Zelenak calls a “vintage modern” style. With a clean design, it features color-coded pages for each of 12 neighborhoods, and is rich with maps and statistics, lists of shops and restaurants, and suggested walking tours.
Zelenak brought the book out in just a few productions weeks through Twist Creative Inc. in Ohio City. The collaborators are proud to proclaim their work a hundred percent made in Cleveland. “It’s kind of easy when the content is good and the illustrations are beautiful,” said Zelenak.
30-year-old Zelenak has recently been hired as a senior designer for the Obama re-election campaign in Chicago. Glanville, 36, is an urban designer whose writing was partly inspired by what he learned while leading Emerging Cleveland tours for expats considering returning to the city. Kuo, 26, was approached after Glanville admired her popular blog posts of 100 Cleveland scenes. She proposed a full-scale collaboration upon reading the text of the book.
“We clicked mysteriously well,” she said. “As a freelancer, I’m used to working all the time with strangers, but Justin and Lee made the crazy fire drill of making a book easy to do.”
The book is not a typical city guide, as it includes such advice as dating and community-gardening information, suggestions on where to live car-free and how to avoid what the trio calls “fascistic big box” stores while shopping. It invites readers to look at the city with new eyes.
The book is available online at newtoclevelandbook.com.
