Hi, I'm Dai. I make books.

I also design posters and advertisements, make digital games accessible to the visually impaired, manage crowdfunding projects, create brand identities and marketing plans, and very occassionally write things.

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Services

Layout / Design
Art Direction
Project Management
Crowdfunding
Brand Identity
PDF Remediation
Marketing / Social Media
+ consultation for all above
  
Selected Works

Date

2019
2019
2020
2020
2022
2022
2022
2022
2022
2022
2023
2023
2023
2023
2024
2024
2024
Project

The Demon Collective, Vol. 1
Magical Industrial Revolution
Libreté + Fleur Du Mall
Lorn Song of the Bachelor
ALIEN The Roleplaying Game
ARCventure Series
BX: A Cipher Universe
Gangs of Titan City
The Monster Overhaul
Old School Essentials
Eat the Reich
Moonlight on Roseville Beach
Social Media Management
Throne of Avarice
Cairn 2E Boxed Set
INEVITABLE
MOTHERSHIP 1E Deluxe Set

Client

GMDK
Skerples
GMDK
Exalted Funeral
Free League Publishing
Exalted Funeral
Dreamyard NYC
SoulMuppet Publishing
Skerples
Necrotic Gnome
Rowan, Rook, & Deckard
R. Rook Studio
Space Penguin Ink
SoulMuppet Publishing
Space Penguin Ink
SoulMuppet Publishing
Tuesday Knight Games

Work

Project Management
Crowdfunding
Project Management
Layout / Design
PDF Remediation
Layout / Design
Layout / Design
Layout / Design
Crowdfunding
PDF Remediation
PDF Remediation
Layout / Design
Marketing / Social Media
Layout / Design
Marketing / Social Media
Layout / Design
PDF Remediation

The Monster Overhaul
Magical Industrial Revolution: A Pre-Apocalyptic Setting Guide
A4 hardcover, 152pp
Published by Skerples
2019
My creative partnership with Skerples goes back to 2017, when I took their free introductory adventure Tomb of the Serpent Kings and redesigned it to make it easier to read and run at the table. I sent them what I had made, and I’ve been a part of every project they’ve done ever since. 

Magical Industrial Revolution was a much larger project in scale than any that we had worked on before, and it was decided that the best way to produce it would be via crowdfunding. The campaign launched on August 13th, 2019, and concluded a mere eleven days later with a total funding of $20,512 against a $4,000 goal. This was, at the time, a profound success, and it helped pave the way for the even more resounding success of The Monster Overhaul four years later. 

The book is an attempt at depicting a city perched on the precipice of ruin due to one of several runaway technologies. The keywords were “density of information” and “readability” and so the entire book is set in Franklin Gothic, a profoundly versatile typeface that pulls double duty as a strong display face and a serviceable body copy. This template proved extremely successful, and was fundamentally unchanged when we re-used it for The Monster Overhaul. 

This book was printed by Mixam on 80lb white uncoated paper with a matte laminate cover, and was shipped alongside three pamphlets for in-world products and services and an art card. It sold well and was very well-received by critics, with particular praise being levied at the design for facilitating ease-of-use for Game Masters at the table. It is also notable for being the last thing I did in Affinity before moving my entire workload over into the Adobe ecosystem. 

Written by Skerples. 
Illustrated by Luka Rejec, Jonathan Newell, and Logan Stahl.
Editing by Fiona Geist.
Design and Crowdfunding by Dai Shugars.





©2024 Dai Shugars | DAI Design Works, LLC