Writing At Red Lights: Inspiration for Writers by Laura Lentz is a unique, fun spirited inspirational guide for writers of memoir. The book design needed to be practical, easy to follow, and and invite engagement with a warm and fun style.
The Challenge:
- To visually recreate the concept of a “Red Light” as an inspirational forward driving force.
- To design a visually rich layout that encourages readers to consider new ways of thinking about their writing, and to engage in writing exercises.
- To create a book that is unique and different from other guides for writers.
The Solution:
We explored the title’s layered meaning, and chose to provide the viewer the sense of writing your way beyond the literal physical red street light. The symbolic heart within a red ignited spark provides a visual story: This book will show readers how to find their brilliance and ignite their creativity by giving permission to dig deep with vulnerable honesty.
We chose a gold colored pen to bring in hints of inspiration, brightness, and magic – the pen also pulls in an element of intelligent sophistication that writers who read this book aspire to.
The grey and black background and subtle texture of abstract script in the atmosphere sets the tone for an activated yet neutral environment. The landscape of a black empty road contrasts with the light of the creative work which the book guides the reader to participate in, furthering the books message that remarkable stories are all around.
The interior illustrations are simple and bold, utilizing a combination of cut-out shapes, free form pen lines, and subtle layered textures mirroring the cover style. We chose large-scale blown-out graphics to to support the reading experience in a way that pull readers directly into physically and emotionally engaging in the books content. There is no other book for writer like this that we have seen.
