Some Light at the End: Designing a book about death.
SOME LIGHT AT THE END
It's not everyday you're ask to design a book about death. Some Light at the End is just that, and so much more.
SERVICES PROVIDED
art direction
cover design
layout
outer context
We were approached in 2018 to start a project that immediately piqued our interest: a book about hospice and end of life care. The project was facilitated by our former client and long-time collaborators, Works Progress Agency. The author, Beth Cavenaugh, was a retired hospice nurse with over 20 years experience in helping people and their families through their final days. Beth had selected Violet Mae Reed as an illustrator, and as a team, we set out on the meandering path of making a book.
The relative levity (think What to Expect When You’re Expecting, but the death version) of the writing surprised us, given the topic, and keeping these opposing forces in balance was an exciting challenge.
our move
We designed with a balance of dignity and approachability in mind. Cover to cover.
CREDITS
Works Progress Agency provided further art direction, guidance, facilitation and project management.
Figurative illustrations by Violet Mae Reed
PRESS
AIGA Eye on Design
Working Not Working Magazine
Some Light at the End
SERVICES PROVIDED
art direction
cover design
layout
CREDITS
Works Progress Agency provided further art direction, guidance, facilitation and project management.
Figurative illustrations by Violet Mae Reed
PRESS
AIGA Eye on Design
Working Not Working Magazine
the challenge
It's not everyday you're ask to design a book about death. Some Light at the End is just that, and so much more.
outer context
We were approached in 2018 to start a project that immediately piqued our interest: a book about hospice and end of life care. The project was facilitated by our former client and long-time collaborators, Works Progress Agency. The author, Beth Cavenaugh, was a retired hospice nurse with over 20 years experience in helping people and their families through their final days. Beth had selected Violet Mae Reed as an illustrator, and as a team, we set out on the meandering path of making a book.
The relative levity (think What to Expect When You’re Expecting, but the death version) of the writing surprised us, given the topic, and keeping these opposing forces in balance was an exciting challenge.
our move
We designed with a balance of dignity and approachability in mind. Cover to cover.
ART CREATION
Between each chapter, Works Progress Agency wrote a series of prompts that patients and their caregivers could ask each other to expand and open the conversation at end-of-life.
To represent these moments of pause in an otherwise informationally dense book, we treated these pages very differently than the rest. Using decaying plant matter from around our studio as drawing tools, we created repetitive india-ink patterns. We attempted to make the same mark each time, to reflect how varied a life can be, though we are all part of humanity.
We created the marks using Alocasia, Banana, Fiddle Leaf Fig, Lily and Rubber plant leaves and stems.
DESIGN
FOOTNOTES
As a book with complex information, we had to create various rules, charts and graphs to denote different content types. Caregiver’s Tips were specifically something we felt needed to be highlighted for easy skimming.
DESIGN
FOOTNOTES
There were also a great number of bulleted lists in the original manuscript, which often felt more like a series of answers to a question rather than a list.
We took these in an editorial direction, introducing the vertical rule to denote a shift in tone.
WORDS FROM THE AUTHOR
“...Excellence is the first word that comes to mind. Studio HMVD is beyond professional, easy to work with, unflappable, and thoughtful about their work. Their attention to detail is extraordinary...”
- BETH CAVENAUGH
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