Book Design
Letters From Home: To a Son in College
Blue dashed lines mark margins and folds
“I hope that this book brings comfort and support to other people who are ill, or to their families and friends. Dealing with a slow but inexorable disease is a challenge of overwhelming proportions.
Whatever impact these pages may have, I wrote them primarily out of a desire to tell my son how much I love him and how much I hope he will carry that love with him into the future.”
—Susan Martin
New York City May 17, 2015
This was a book design project for Susan Martin who had been struggling with Lou Gehrig's (or ALS) disease for some years. She used a brain-computer interface to communicate her memoir to her Typist. This is a machine allowed her to control a computer using only her brainwaves, with no movement required. She died in early August, 2016, a week after she finished her book.
Susan left the design of the book to my discretion. Since the book consists of letters to her son and stories from her life, I used a photo of Susan in her youth and another of her with her baby son. The color of Lou Gehrig's disease awareness is represented with navy blue and white. I used a muted, hopeful blue background to represent, but not define Susan by the disease that so deeply affected her life.
Mood Board
Themes of motherhood, Lou Gehrig's disease and memoir book styles.
Tools used:
