In the world of Studio 3 in Ellsworth, artists wield branding irons and sixshooters along with their sketchpads.

Since his company began designing covers for Thorndike Press large-print books in July, Buddy Chase has posed in cowboy gear brandishing cardboard cutout pistols as he perched on a piano bench.

“We couldn’t stop laughing,” he recalled.

Another time, Chase posed as a dead man in a Lamoine sandpit.

The cowboy and corpse poses became photographs for the covers of a Western novel and a murder mystery. For another Western-themed book cover, Chase had a welder friend fabricate a branding iron. On the heels of a failed first attempt to heat the iron, Chase is still eager to schedule a second session to incorporate a brand into a new cover design.

No matter how challenging, Chase and his Studio 3 cohorts strive to brand book covers for sight-impaired readers with distinctive graphics conveying a strong sense of the book quickly and easily.

Among Studio 3’s first Thorndike covers was one for David Lodge’s novel “Paradise News,” about an Englishman in Hawaii. The graphic on the tropical green dust jacket sends a sort of shorthand sense of the story’s main character and setting with a British flag stamped on a pineapple.

For “Fortune is a Woman,” an Elizabeth Adler adventure-romance, Chase chose to illustrate the story of a Chinese character landed in San Francisco with an exotic-looking coin set in a ginger-colored background. He called a Bangor collectibles dealer, who for $10 gave him a coin frequently used by Chinese travelers en route to the United States.

Now in its third location, in a Main Street office above Curtis Books in Ellsworth, the 15-year-old company specializes in design and layout, serving as an art department for advertising firms who have none, while taking on assignments such as the large-print book covers. The company has also created many of the logos, posters and brochures seen throughout the area.

With advertising jobs less plentiful in recent years, Chase has sought to diversify. After hearing of Thorndike Press in Unity, which is owned by MacMillan Publishing and whose sole business is producing large-print books for the sight-impaired, Chase was intrigued. Hitting the road with portfolio in hand, Chase returned with an assignment to create cover designs for three volumes.

That was more than 40 books ago, and Thorndike art director Michael Anderson says their association is flourishing.

Studio 3 is a small shop, staffed by Chase, artist Marty Lyons, and researcher and typesetter Robin Lonski. The scale of the operation helps keep things manageable, says Chase. “It’s OK to have three cooks, but not seven.”

The market for large-print format books is lucrative and growing, and not just for sight-impaired readers, Anderson says. Thorndike started with about 80 large-print titles in its first year of production, expanding to about 300 this year.

A friend once told Chase that the advertising business reminded him of a pack of wild dogs chasing a parked car, yet some areas in publishing have remained relatively recession-proof.

Chase’s recent success comes after a lifelong dream starting at age 6, when he sent his drawings to Walt Disney, looking for immediate employment.

“I expected him to hire me right away,” said Chase laughing.

He still has a letter from artist Norman Rockwell critiquing some oil paintings Chase did at 13.

“My uncle was his physician, so I had an `in,’ ” he said laughing some more. The paintings were awful, Chase said, but he has kept the letter, perhaps as a reminder that artits can know success.

“This is a hard place to make a buck and this is a hard way to make a living,” said Chase,”but we have fun.”