Chiefs & Warriors, Native Family, Great Plains, and Hidden Faces are the first four titles in the new Native Nations Libraries series produced by Callaway Editions. Callaway’s in-house designer, Jennifer Wagner, was charged with the creation of striking covers and jackets for these four books, which contain rich quadratone reproductions of photographs of Native American subjects taken over a thirty-year period at the turn of the century by Edward S. Curtis. The intention was to give the series a distinct look, but to also somehow relate to the look of Native Nations, Callaway’s large-format book devoted to Curtis’s work, published in 1993.

The decision was made to keep front covers clear of type (a la Native Nations) with the image carefully selected to communicate the particular thematic content of each volume. Back covers are elevated from the usual afterthought to the site for the main title type. Spines are colored in a similar tone to that of Native Nations, to connect these series book to it visually.

Front-cover images have been enlarged to make a bolder statement. These same images make an appearance within their respective volumes, but with their original cropping. For the back-cover title type, the designer redrew Franklin Gothic to elongate the letterforms, allowing the stacked two-word main title to fill the space. A logo-like block containing the photographer’s name is placed consistently above the main title, in the lighter, serif Centaur face, which the designers used for text in the book interior and for spine type treatment. The logo devised for the series (shown on the front flap) was adapted from a Native American tribal symbol.