Cover and Book Design
In-House Published Chapbooks
826DC
2018
Cover Illustrations by Anna-Bella Sicilia
826DC is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6–18 with their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write. For the spring semester of 2018, I served as their Interim Off-Site Programs Manager and was responsible for managing In-School Writing, Editing, and Publishing (ISWEP) programs. While designing and writing curricula for ISWEP programs, I was also responsible for envisioning, managing, and executing chapbook publications for all appropriate ISWEPs. It became a great opportunity for my background in education and design to collaborate.
Using the resources available—skills within our team, paper and binding materials currently available in our small publishing nook, and a hardworking in-house printer—the designer in me wanted to create as best of high-quality chapbook publications as we could to honor the students' semester-long—and at one school, a whole year—of hard work in writing their pieces. I also wanted the students to be a part of the publication process and so we held special classes where book titles, a collective author name, and even illustration suggestions for the cover would be voted on.
On our book reveal and celebration day, the wide-eyed smiles would confirm the students' awe of the book that they were holding in their hands—a book of their collective stories and input, now come to physical fruition. One of our teachers commented that even her students that had difficulty reading would share their book with pride and found them now more engaged in writing and reading along with their peers.
The authors signed each others' books and even volunteered to read their stories aloud. Giving the floor to these students in our own classroom/open mic readings honored them as the authors they are; reminding them that their stories—their voices—are important and vital in shaping our collective future.
