Editorial design: Oma Lala

The brief:

This project required students to develop a unique concept for a substantial book dealing with a person whose story was worthy of telling . Students were required to conduct in-depth research on/with the subject and context, develop an editorial concept and narrative strategy, write original text (with the guidance of the creative writing lecturer), develop a design concept and execute all related imaging components (with the guidance of the imaging and design lecturers) of the book. All text, illustrations and/or photography needed to be original and self-generated by students. The medium used needed to suit the subject of the book.

Technical requirements:

- Creativity in innovative interpretation of the personal and creative voice in written and visual submissions.

- Clear written verbal and visual technical skills in communicating editorial information as a stand-alone text as well as a stand- alone visual narrative.

- Extensive experimentation in idea development as well as execution of creative writing and imagery.

- Attention to the appropriateness of written language and visual vocabulary for the subject matter and context/genre of the book.

- Professional conduct in presentation skills and project management.

Deliverables:

- Presentation boards (A3): a minimum of 4

- A single PDF file consisting of the following: dust jacket , cover (front, spine and back), endpapers, title page , imprint page, contents page/s (single page or as multiple pages), one completed chapter (minimum 4 text spreads) and chapter titles (minimum of three chapter title pages in spread format) and a minimum of one additional text spread for each of the remaining three chapter titles (mock copy can be used for these but the introduction paragraph should clarify the narrative of the chapter).

- MS Word document containing the book’s text.

Rationale:

This project was the most challenging to complete. Throughout the duration of the project, I learned that I had become relatively precious about my illustration style and the certain design rules I unknowingly had set up for myself. The content of the text called for a looser, almost child-like illustrative style, which was initially uncharted territory for me, however, I found that, in the end, it created a tone that was very suiting to the character. The subject of the book, being my German-speaking, South African-born grandmother, challenged me to translate stories from my own mother-tongue, into English. I decided to leave some German words in the text too, as they speak to the overall tone of the book, "honest"- sometimes brutally- and "authentic."