AI-Fluent Book Designer — 30K Word Keepsake, Tight Deadline

READ THIS FIRST
This application requires a 3-minute Loom video and a portfolio link that shows AI-assisted design work. Applications missing either will not be reviewed. I watch every Loom in full. If yours is generic or recycled from other applications, I'll notice and move on.

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ABOUT THE PROJECT
I'm making a book for my 18-year-old niece — a gift I'm giving her before a three-week trip we're taking through Europe together this summer. The book is a primer. She reads it before we leave, and when we arrive in each city, she already has context, history, and appreciation. It's part curated guide, part small art book, part keepsake fro ---------- . This version is spiral-bound so she can carry it with her, lay it flat, write in it, dog-ear pages, live with it.

The manuscript is already written. It's a 30,000 word literary work across 15 chapters — 12 zone chapters covering the trip in itinerary order (Rome, Tuscany, Florence, Venice, the Dolomites, Bavaria, Salzburg, Prague, Paris, and stops between), plus 3 thematic closing chapters on fashion, European historical through-lines, and 18-year-old women throughout history who walked these same streets. It's delivered as a single clean .md file with embedded layout notes, image placeholders, pull-quotes, and a design brief.

You are not writing anything. You are not sourcing imagery. I hand you the manuscript, a locked aesthetic, a folder of approved images (location photography, museum and archival pieces, AI-generated historical scenes), a portrait of my niece, and a personal letter fro ---------- . Your job is to bring it all together into a beautiful PDF ready for spiral binding.

The final piece is a spiral-bound book I'll print through a local print shop like FedEx Office or Staples. Roughly 140 pages, matte color interior, clear acetate or cardstock covers.

Aesthetically — elegant and grown-up, but alive. Not a travel guide. Closer to a small monograph with soul — serious typography, generous white space, and genuine whimsy layered through custom illustration, decorative elements, and marginalia. Fun, unforgettable, and beautifully made.

I am hiring for execution and taste, not vision. The vision is mine. The consistency, the craft, and the pixel-level care are yours.

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WHAT YOU'D ACTUALLY DO

ILLUSTRATION GENERATION. Using my locked style reference, generate roughly 15 chapter opener illustrations, 15 to 20 spot illustrations, and a handful of decorative elements and marginalia. The real work is in the curation — generating 10 to 15 options per slot and selecting the right one, ensuring the whole set feels like one book. Light Photoshop cleanup on AI artifacts as needed.

IMAGE TREATMENT. I'll hand you approximately 40 approved images from mixed sources — location photography, museum and archival pieces, AI-generated historical imagery. Your job is to unify them so the Uffizi oil painting, the Alpine landscape, and the fashion plate all feel like they belong to the same book.

OPENING TREATMENT. The book opens with a portrait of my niece and a personal letter fro ---------- . This is the emotional center of the object. Expect to iterate with me on this spread several times.

COVER DESIGN. Front cover only (spiral binding has no spine). Generate concepts, refine the winner. Type and image should feel integrated, not stacked.

PDF ASSEMBLY. Using Vellum, Affinity Publisher, InDesign, or a comparable tool, ingest the manuscript and build the book. Typography, margins, chapter openers, image placement per the embedded layout notes, page numbers, table of contents, front matter. Design with spiral binding in mind — left-side margins need extra room for the coil punch, nothing critical in the gutter.

PRINT-READY EXPORT. Final PDF properly spec'd for local print shop spiral binding. Single pages, not spreads. Color interior, appropriate resolution, proper bleed if needed.

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WHO I'M LOOKING FOR

THE MUST-HAVES
AI FLUENCY AT A PROFESSIONAL LEVEL. You use Midjourney, Flux, Nano Banana Pro, Ideogram, or similar daily. You understand style references, seed locking, and multi-image conditioning. Your portfolio shows AI work you're proud of, not AI slop.

TASTE AND CURATION INSTINCT. You can generate 15 options and tell me which 3 are best and why. You notice when a set is drifting off-style before I do. If I have to tell you an illustration looks "AI," you're the wrong hire.

LAYOUT SKILL. You've formatted a real book before in Vellum, Affinity Publisher, InDesign, or comparable. You know what a good text block looks like, you care about widows and orphans, and you understand basic print production.

STRONG PORTFOLIO ONLINE. A link I can click. Behance, your own site, a PDF, Dropbox — whatever. I need to see your AI work, your layout work, and your photo editing work.

HIGH AGENCY AND COMMUNICATION. I am not art-directing you every step. You take the brief, flag problems early, send daily progress check-ins, and drive to done. Nothing goes dark.

AVAILABLE FOR OVERLAP. 2 to 3 hours during 8am to 12pm Manila time for reviews and quick syncs.

THE NICE-TO-HAVES
Book design or editorial background. Experience designing for spiral binding. Published work you can point to. Background in illustration or fine art.

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THE DETAILS
SCOPE. One book. Roughly 140 pages finished. Spiral-bound, printed locally.

TIMELINE. Tight and non-negotiable. Finished print-ready PDF by June 3, 2026. The book needs to be in her hands by early June to give her time to read before we leave June 19. Realistic scope is 30 to 40 hours across roughly 2 to 3 weeks.

RATE. $250 flat, paid as milestones are met — $50 on hire, $50 on approval of illustrations and treated images, $50 on approval of PDF assembly and cover, and $100 on delivery of final print-ready PDF.

DELIVERABLES. Print-ready PDF spec'd for local spiral binding. All source project files. All illustration assets in high resolution. All treated images in high resolution. One organized folder, cleanly named.

LONG-TERM. I'm planning a second, more polished hardcover version of this same book for delivery in December. If this spiral version goes well, you're my first call for that project — and I hire designers I like again for ongoing logo, web, and marketing work beyond that.

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HOW TO APPLY
Please send me the following four things.

FIRST. A 3-minute Loom video introducing yourself. Tell me who you are, show me one piece of AI-assisted design work you're genuinely proud of and walk me through how you made it, and tell me why this project interests you.

SECOND. A link to your portfolio. AI work, layout work, and photo editing work should all be visible.

THIRD. Your favorite AI illustration tool and how you maintain style consistency across a set of images, in two or three sentences.

FOURTH. Answer this question in writing. "I give you a locked style reference and ask you to generate 15 chapter opener illustrations for a 15-chapter book. Walk me through your actual workflow, start to finish."

APPLICATIONS WITHOUT A LOOM AND A PORTFOLIO LINK WILL NOT BE REVIEWED.

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WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
Strong applications get a 20-minute call. From there, I'll select one or two people for a small paid test — generate 3 illustrations against a locked style reference and treat 1 image. $25 flat for the test. Whoever wins gets the full project and starts immediately.

Looking forward to seeing your work.