life book

"Anielka" is a book made for the private use of its author and her closest family and friends. my involvement in the process was that of an editor as well as a designer, which meant that i could influence both the contents and the visual identity of the book. over the course of twelve months, i got to tirelessly work with old family photographs, diary entries, and document scraps to compose this memoir from a life in eastern poland.

​

the making of this book was part of my diploma thesis during my communication design studies at the university of wrocław. it was prepared in close cooperation with the author, who played a very active role in the design process—because of the personal character of the project and its limited audience, as a designer i could prioritize her wishes over industry publishing trends. in the end, the book corresponded to both the author's vision for it and her character. it was purposefully kept quite modest and down to earth, without any extravagance or overstatement. this was reflected, among others, in the cover—i initially made some attempts at implementing the author's photo in the design, but in the end she expressed that this felt "too self-centered" and opted for the version with a landscape photo.

​

while i have worked with indesign before, this was the biggest book project i have done so far. it was supported by over forty pages of visual theory writing in the theoretical chapter of my thesis, countless consultations, and research done into the visual identity of autobiographies and memoirs on the polish market. the photos above also present a font based on the author's handwriting, which i designed to use in the project and increase its personal character. what resulted was a very holistically prepared, careful illustration of the author's life memories, put together in over 300 pages of writing.

​

tools: adobe indesign, procreate

skills: graphic design, book design, editing, digital illustration

date: 2024