Existential Courage | Mariel Empit

Existential
Courage

Illustration

'Existential Courage,' a book published by Summit Books, is for anyone looking to answer the question, "What's next for me?" A book written by bringing together the practice of human-centered design, scientific research, and learnings from the author's (Arriane Serafico of Purposeful Creative) 15,000+ students.

I primarily worked as the book illustrator but put on several other hats throughout the book-making process.

*Unsolicited Disclaimer: I wrote this case study way before the quarantine lockdowns started. COVID-19 building a better case for design jobs remote-working than this case study, apparently. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The Process

More than the illustration process, this project was also a great workshop on project management and how it’s completely possible to write, illustrate, and layout a book remotely from each other. Below is the step-by-step process (well, most of it) of how we went about it.

Synthesizing & Prototyping

Gathering Data

A huge goal of this project is to grow The Purposeful Creative community. The first few months were spent getting to know them through data: interviews, online surveys, and virtual meetings. We wanted to paint a picture of the why and how people come across self-help books.

We concluded the data-gathering by conducting a design-thinking session with the book's creative and publishing team. The session included: naming our primary audience, brainstorming ideas of what the book could be, and thinking of ways to grow beyond the published page.

You can read more about this process on Arriane's Instagram.

Execution

The brainstorming session led to clearer, solid direction. We simultaneously worked on the writing and the book's visuals. As Arriane wrote and Angel (our editor) edited chapters, Christine (art director & layout artist) and I started working on the book's visuals.

The two illustration styles we had the community vote on. Despite #2 being the popular vote, the team decided to go against it, seeing that option #1 was more fitting for the book's feel and tonality.

Below is a composite of most of the illustrations I've done.

A lot of our process included a lot of shared Slack conversations, Google Slide decks, and Dropbox Paper documents. We did an in-out process where I simultaneously addressed revisions as they gave edits and comments. We did Zoom sessions when an idea needed brainstorming.

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Getting Printed

The Cover

Arriane had pretty clear direction for the cover going in. Most of the tweaks were made on how to execute it: how to illustrate the leap-off, what she's jumping into, and the choice of type.

Play the video to see a WIP of the cover.

Layout by: Christine Herrin

The Launch

The book pre-launched in December of 2019 with an audience of Arriane's select students and community.

Photos by: Mare Collantes

As a fun way to celebrate the launch, I also created a pack of Instagram Sticker GIFs that people used on their Instagram stories during the event and as they read the book in the coming months. Check them out, here!