Book designed to craft connection with adoptees

Designing an autobiography with respect for its audience

Problem

An autobiography needed a design that reflected the author's empathy and respect for other adoptees. 

Solution

Use a custom jacket design, reader-friendly typography, and content structured with multiple entry points.

Backstory

Thomas Park Clement, driven by a heartfelt mission, aims to assure adoptees and adoptive parents that they are not alone, but rather chosen. His autobiography, Dust of the Streets, recounts his journey from being abandoned in Seoul to being adopted into an American family. Clement's narrative offers a profound and enlightening perspective on a seemingly insurmountable situation. Written with deep empathy, the book is dedicated to adoptees, crafted with thoughtful intention to serve as a loving gift for them.

Objective

The task for WDG was to design the book with the same level of care: ensuring effortless readability, offering multiple entry points, and removing barriers so readers could deeply engage with Clement's story.

Approach

Collaborating closely with Thomas and his wife, Wonsook Kim, WDG developed a plan for the soft-bound book to give it the feel of a premium hard cover edition.

Results

Features like cover flaps and full-bleed color pages at the front and back, emulating book tissues, make the book special from cover to cover. Beyond the premium cover, the book's pages were designed with larger type and ample line spacing for easy reading. WDG also included strategically placed photos that directly support the narrative, providing visual context and additional entry points into Thomas's story.

Flattened book cover with interior flaps, front and back covers, and spine. The covers feature an author's note and a testimonial; the back cover features original artwork and a poem by the author. The cover features a photo of the author as a young
An interior layout from the book with a photo on the left page of the author as a young boy with his father and type on the right.
An interior layout from the book with a two photos on the left page of the author practicing trapeze skills and one on the right of the author performing as a clown.
Book layout with text on the left and a photo on the right of the author around the time of his adoption.
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