After 18 years at the University of Georgia Press, Walton
Harris will retire from the design and production department at the end of
October.
"All of the Press staff will miss Walton's great sense of
humor, above-the-call-of-duty dedication, and wonderful inventiveness in
playing his part in the making of our books,” said Kathi Morgan, assistant
director for design and production at UGA Press. “His design and production
colleagues will especially miss Walton's appreciation of the craft of design,
typography, composition, appropriate color palettes, use of quality materials,
and fine manufacturing technology and techniques so each book could be enjoyed
and treasured. We wish him—and his family—well during the next phase of
his life beyond the office!”
As book designer, production
manager, and production specialist at the Press, Harris has managed more than
800 titles through production and designed and composed more than 160 titles
since 1994.
“I will always be grateful to Walton for all that he did for our
department, the Press, and for me from 1994 through 2005 when we worked together
in design and production,” said Sandy Hudson, former assistant director for
design and production at UGA Press. “Organized, thorough, detail-oriented, a
team player, someone who appreciates others and treats people with respect—Walton
was and is a superb production coordinator. Dedicated, focused, and
hardworking, Walton can always be counted on to do a great job and to carry
through on any project.”
After receiving his BFA from the University of Georgia, Harris
made many one-of-a-kind books and other works of art. His work has been
exhibited at the Lucky Street Gallery, Heath Gallery, and Nexus Contemporary
Art Center. Some of his books are in the collections of the High Museum of Art,
New York Museum of Modern Art, and in private collections.
Harris’s publishing career began in 1977 when he cofounded
Nexus Press, a fine arts publisher specializing in limited edition artist’s
books. From 1980 until 1991, Harris wrote, designed, directed, and performed
original works for the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta, including Dinosaurs, Aladdin, Once Upon A-bomb,
The Box, Cirque Pataphysique, and Bad
Sax. His show, The Box, was
invited to the International Puppet Festival in Boston, MA in 1989, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution declared it
the “most creative and original dramatic performance” in the 1989 year-end
theater review. Harris went on to cofound the animation studio Vivid Pictures
in 1992.
“I have really enjoyed working on the complex four-color projects in our series of natural history titles: Snakes of the Southeast, Turtles of the Southeast, Frogs and Toads of the Southeast, Lizards and Crocodilians of the Southeast, Salamanders of the Southeast, Dragonflies and Damselflies of Georgia and the Southeast, Wildflowers of the Eastern United States, and The Breeding Bird Atlas of Georgia,” said Harris.
“I have really enjoyed working on the complex four-color projects in our series of natural history titles: Snakes of the Southeast, Turtles of the Southeast, Frogs and Toads of the Southeast, Lizards and Crocodilians of the Southeast, Salamanders of the Southeast, Dragonflies and Damselflies of Georgia and the Southeast, Wildflowers of the Eastern United States, and The Breeding Bird Atlas of Georgia,” said Harris.
