With roots dating back to 2001, Juniper Custom has completed over ten thousand custom projects over the last 24 years, ranging from one-of-a-kind gifts to libraries of which dreams are made. Our founder, Thatcher Wine,  referred to as “the man who brought back the library,” is involved in every project, overseeing the curation and design of each collection while cultivating an incredible array of relationships and services around the world. 

The Juniper Custom process is unique and tailored to each individual project, but every great idea has to start somewhere! Keep reading to learn how to reach out with your initial inquiry, as well as what to expect from the process along the way. 

Your First Step…

Once you have an idea for a custom project, reach out to us here with an outline of your vision and we will write back with any outstanding questions and next steps. Or, if you’re ready, you can pay a deposit on any one of our custom commission pages. Following your submission, a member of our custom team will be in touch to move your project forward..

Essential Information…

Depending on the scale of your project, here are some things our team will ask along the way. 

• Measurements of your bookshelves (or for smaller projects, please tell us you’d like a book set and we can work out the size with you) 

• Your style preferences (color palette, design aesthetic, and/or let us know if you’d like a photo or illustration driven design)

• Subject matter preferences (if you have specific authors, genres, or other specifications, please share as much or as little as you would like). 

If the project is meant as a decorative-only project, please let us know. We only work with real books and do not provide faux books, but we can engineer collections with less expensive books if they are only for decoration. 

Actualization…

After the deposit is paid, we will build your full project estimate and invoice, which your deposit counts towards. We will outline our full process, introducing you to our design team, curator, and project manager to fully realize your vision. 

Paying the initial deposit covers initial design concepts prepared by one of our talented designers based on your design ideas. We will present a color palette, font choices, and initial imagery to give a sense of what is possible for your set, collection, or library.

If your project involves book curation of specific books and design, our curator will research and submit a preliminary book list for your review.

Curation and Design…

If your project does not include jacket design, we will focus on curation in greater depth. We can curate and build fully custom collections based on favorite subjects, genres, authors, or specific titles. If you’d also like custom jackets for your curated collection, our designers will work with you to execute your vision. Our designers take great pride in researching and understanding the content of your favorite books. This is especially helpful if you want jackets that are inspired by aspects of favorite stories. We will provide digital renderings of the design to review before we ever go to production print. 

If you’re only interested in decorative jackets rather than the content of the books, we will use less expensive books, such as law books, to create a purely decorative art installation. These are real books we select for your project based on their size, not content.

The Possibilities Are Endless…

If your beloved books are in paperback and only available as such, we can have them rebound into hardcover! We find hardcovers to be the best format for firmly holding our paper-printed book jackets in place to display the artwork across the spines. If you ship us your paperbacks, we will have them rebound into hardcovers by our partner bindery.

Over the past two decades we have worked hard to ensure our customization process is a seamless one for our clients. Our goal has always been to find new and creative ways to celebrate the physical book. As our founder, Thatcher Wine, said: Books are good for the world, and the more books there are, the better place it can be.