Those Who Leave

Book Design: Memoir

Tools
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe InDesign

The creative brief was to create the book design and marketing campaign for a new memoir. The solution I worked towards hits a tone of nostalgia and unease that keeps the reader’s attention lingering. It makes you curious about an experience of life and memories beyond your own. Like leafing through polaroids of strangers in an antique store, you are piecing together the strands of a family. The overall design of the book allows for the reader to be led through a narrative by means of careful weaving of text, art and image.

Cover Design

The cover features an original oil painting that mirrors the themes of the book and leaves room for intrigue. Having a full bleed of the painting that wraps around the back allows for space for the painting to breathe and to have the visual impact it needs. The child running on the back juxtaposes motion with the static summary on the back.

I set the cover text in Futura Bold; a geometric sans-serif that would lend gravitas to the cover without decorative distraction. The off-white color of the text lends a warmth to this memoir and pulls it away from the eery teal of the sky. The color palette woven through the book continues to push and pull between muted neutrals and sharp hits of saturated color.

Process sketches for cover design

Original Artwork

Mediums
Oil Paint on Canvas
Watercolor on Paper
Digital Illustration

The memoir features pieces of original artwork as well as photography. The art explores memory through a fuzzy lens, inviting the viewer to hook their own experiences of family onto the image. Scenes from old family photos are paused and rendered, but identity is stripped away. The viewer is invited to wonder and create a narrative in the space left behind.

All of the artwork is created from my family photos and chosen for their stylistic elements. The oil painting was created as a composite of several photos and sets the scene under a stormy sky on a dusty street. It seeks an Americana that anyone who has spent time in a rural town recognizes.

Using these artworks in a book design allowed me to push further into the ways in which a story is told and the parts left out. These spaces between people and within a visual narrative intrigue me.

Interior Spreads

An important part of the interior composition was to maintain negative space and allow the visuals to hold presence alongside the text. I carried Futura through for folios, page numbers and chapter titles and chose Adobe Caslon for the body. These classic typefaces for book design would be timeless for a non-fiction memoir that spans decades and countries.

The palette is soft and comfortable in tones of mostly beige and grays. It feels like the furniture at your grandparent’s house, the washed-out photos found in old photo albums. Having the teal and pops of color in the art helps to break up the muted tones and energize the palette. The minimalist layout allows the reader a resting place as they make their way through the narrative.

eReader Layout

For eReader layout, I combed through my InDesign document for anything that would cause Reflowable EPUB export problems. Some important checks included: anchoring images, verifying that all text had correct styles applied, and using the articles panel to ensure the correct export order. Once everything was checked and export tests were done, I created an EPUB that would be compatible for eReaders and allow for a responsive reading experience.

Web Banners & Social Media

The marketing of this memoir builds on the visual world of the cover and interior spreads. It maintains a consistency in type and color palette but adds new visuals. For the web banners, I selected a photo of the ocean and used blending modes to dim it and allow for readability of the text. The high quality mockup of the book helps to generate interest in the release of the new title.

I crafted a social media post for the book publisher’s feed that would pique the curiosity of the potential readers. I placed objects from my family around a placeholder book in order to build on the narrative of a family memoir. Then, I brought this photo into Photoshop and replaced the placeholder with the cover of Those Who Leave by using the Transform and Distort tools. The resulting marketing campaign across web and social media is one that highlights the themes of family and transatlantic voyage within a memoir.