This book was a fun challenge to design. I am generally expected to design books related to law for adults, however this one was written specifically for high school and college aged students. I relied on the high school daughter of a friend to describe a mock trial — we didn’t have those at my high school! Her enthusiasm and interest in a potential career in the law helped to drive me to create a book cover that would engage someone at the high school and college level, without being too baby-ish.

2021 GDUSA American In-house Design Awards Winner
2022 GDUSA American Graphic Design Showcase Award Winner

It was important that the design didn’t rely on an ominous hurricane or tornado image. The pandemic really emphasized for me that disasters extend far beyond weather and I wanted to highlight the role pro bono lawyers play in disaster response by using an image that is eye-catching and not necessarily trade-specific.

Sometimes your inspiration comes from your own life experiences. My mom has worked supporting pharmaceutical devices for many years, and as we “talk shop” from time to time, I have learned that there is a TON of steps, documentation, testing, etc. that happens prior to bringing any medical product to market. As we move toward a more digital lifestyle, and replace clipboards and physical paper, I chose to add an iPad to the image of the professional running and combined it with the pulse line to represent the many hurdles faced when bringing a medial device to market. escription goes here

Can I just say that the timeline of this book getting published was spot on. It was released less than a year before we began to really feel the supply chain issues. I was thinking of a futuristic theme, and was a bit inspired by the original Tron Movie, which is where the digital lines overlapping the supply chain comes in. I am really pleased to know that the author, Dennis Unkovic loves the design. He has had many interviews on television, and I even got to catch a book cover I designed on CNBC. His reaction is exactly why I put the effort I do into imagery, I know authors work hard to put together any book, and seeing him proudly hold it on television gave me the best feeling.

Child custody is a sensitive subject with an abundance stereotypical ideas and imagery. I veered away from imagery that showed a fight or a struggle between a man and a woman. I wanted to focus more on the love a parent has for a child and the reasons why one may need to fight for custody. I used an image of hands holding a jar with a tiny plant growing in it. The image reflected the love, but had nothing to do with custody or law. In order to meet my vision, I photoshopped change into the jar to also represent many people need to dig deep for money to fight such an important battle.

One of the benefits of being a designer is that you don’t have to hire someone to design a book you’ve written. I have benefited greatly from a gratitude practice, and believe that it can work well with planning and keeping on task with your goals. I wrote, laid out the entire book, as well as designed the cover which I illustrated myself. I couldn’t think of a better visual for reaching your goals than climbing a mountain. And yep, I used my ideas in the book to write the book!

This is one of the titles that required a stoic and more reserved look to it. I wanted a young lawyer to see this book cover, and feel prestigious holding it. The cover needed to reflect the expertise and knowledge packed into this book. While the scales of justice are a very commonplace icon of law, I found this imagery was stately, and stood proud against the background. I layered in a flag to emphasize that the book would be about was centered around law in the United States.