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Design Category
Book design, 2003
Design firm
University of Chicago Press (Chicago, Illinois)
Collection
(2004) 50 Books/50 Covers of 2003
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The book is a recounting of one woman’s life in her own words. Through her narrative, the reader is given a vision of what it might have been like to grow up in Western Africa during the second half of the twentieth century. Hawa, as she is called, is born in a small village and moves from one place and situation to the next in search of an acceptable quality of life. The variety of settings and situations she finds herself in provides not only a lively story, but a rich anthropological record. Her real name isn’t used in the book and the cover was supposed to represent her, while still preserving a sense of anonymity.
I tried to condense the author’s complex theories about what this book cover should communicate into a simple and yet energetic design. After a lot of searching, I found an appropriate stock image. I used creative cropping and clean typography to give this book the right look and feel.
“The care given to the composition of the image, type and color in this tasteful cover leads to remarkable results.” Lars Müller