WELSH PANDEMIC STORYBOOK
2022
Designing an editorial system that preserved over 150 lived experiences without compromising their individuality.
Client / The Cynefin Company
Role / Designer
Editorial Design / Strategy / Publication / 90 pages / 150+ stories
01/
challenge
The stories carried radically different emotional weight. Any structure risked shaping or sanitising lived experience.
Every story carried a different emotional weight. The challenge wasn't simply organising content, it was creating a publication that respected each voice without shaping its meaning or overshadowing its humanity.
02/
Research
Understanding how design shapes the way stories are experienced.
I explored editorial design, reading behaviour and information hierarchy to understand how typography, pacing and structure influence the way people engage with long-form narratives.
One principle emerged: the design should quietly guide the reader while allowing every story to speak for itself.
03/
editorial system
Creating consistency without compromising individuality.
Instead of designing ninety separate pages, I developed a flexible editorial system built on modular grids, typographic hierarchy and master pages. The result was a publication that felt coherent while allowing every contribution to retain its own identity.
04/
development
Building a system designed to scale.
Reusable layouts, paragraph styles and structured templates streamlined production, making it possible to manage a large volume of sensitive content without sacrificing quality or consistency.
05/
Outcome
A publication built to preserve collective memory.
The final publication brought together more than 150 personal stories into a single editorial experience, creating a lasting record of Wales' response to the pandemic that was prepared for preservation by the National Library of Wales.
