02 | Editorial Design

editorial design book Layout typography book design cover print cutout collage editorial

Project Brief

This project entailed creating a narrative based off a person in our lives who has a story worth telling, someone who has had a meaningful life with much experience and stories to share. The goal of the project is to summarise the story given to us by this acquaintance, who isn't of close relations nor is too young, through vigorous interviews and copywriting to create a book incapsulating the qualities of the subject. The book itself must contain spreads, illustrating the events as they unfold, one full chapter and 3 chapter summaries of the story alongside the illustrated spreads. The cover and dustjacket must tell the essence of the story at a glance.

Deliverables

01 | Presentation boards of full spreads and designs in mocked up formats (A3).

02 | Flat Designs of

○ Dust jacket

○ Cover

○ Endpapers

○ Title page

○ Imprint/copyright page

○ Contents page

○ 1 Chapter with 4 spreads

○ 3 Chapters consisting of a title spread and one additional spread

03 | Full text of the Story

Rationale

My rationale consisted of sharing a story of a close friend of my mother’s who has faced many challenges in her life and still continues to push forward bravely and cheerfully. The story I have chosen is of a person born of Chinese-descent and who come from a long line of unfortunate events, events that seem to plague her family’s lives. This person has faced societal, financial, personal and spiritual problems that seem to be a domino effect on each other. Through the pain, the heartache, the grief, she still triumphs, still remains joyful and still keeps her head high with as much love as she can give.

Annie van der Merwe was born in Johannesburg to Chinese immigrants and 5 siblings, most of whom have all gone through their own tragedies. Her tale is bitter-sweet as she met the love of her life, made the miracle family she’s always wanted to have and then have it all taken away from her one fateful night. The fate of her family rests on those decisions and the outcome is certainly something unexpected.

The chapters of this book start by referencing the ending through flashbacks; the night Annie's life changed forever, the ending of the book in which tragedy struck her household. Chapter one, the full chapter and full spread layout, discusses Annie's childhood, the way she grew up, her ancestry, her lineage and her family tree which seems to be shortening itself more and more. Chapter Two revolves around the meeting of Annie's husband and how they fell in love. This explores their struggles with family, with finances and with their life plans yet still offer each other compassion and willingness to defy all odds to make a life together. Her husband is of Afrikaans descent while she is of Chinese descent, making it a clash between cultures, familiar bonds as well as familiar expectations. Chapter Three divulges the circumstances of creating a family and how Annie had to literally fight for her children from birth, risking her life and her livelihood to raise her children with the best she can offer and to aid them in all aspects of her life. Chapter Four discusses Annie's love and care for her lastborn child, who was born special and perfect, just different to most children. This chapter explores what makes her son who he is and how children with autism deserve much more love and attention as well as understanding which Annie has more than enough of. This concludes the addition of Annie's beautiful family and discuses their livelihood today, as they still fight for each other and give their all despite their circumstances.

The Inspiration Behind The Story

Thank you so much for indulging me and sharing your beautiful story with me so that I could share it with others.

Mood Board

For my Illustrative section of the book spreads, I chose the medium of paper cut-outs to visually display the emotions behind the feelings of being torn apart and being glued back together, as the subject of the book is constantly subjected to. Paper cut-outs are also used to show depth through a multifaceted collage of layers, showing how the characters in the story have many sides.

Layout Sketches

This was the over-view of how I would've placed the images according to how the story, next to it, unfolded.

Typography

The fonts chosen were carefully considered and related to the story, considering the highs and lows of the occurring events.

Flat Spreads of First Full Chapter: Chinese New Year

The fonts chosen were carefully considered and related to the story, considering the highs and lows of the occurring events.

Flat Spreads of Second Chapter: The divide

Chapter 2 divulges the first meeting of Annie’s husband, Riaan Van Der Merwe, how they became acquainted, fell in love, and all the struggles the couple had to go through in the face of racism due to the segregation in South Africa.