How Books Are Born

The publishing house FotoEvidence will soon publish DAWNING’s first book, titled Pipe Dreams, an immersive investigation into how water scarcity impacts the rights of women and girls in Kenya. To learn more about what went into turning this project into reality, DAWNING sat down for a conversation with the book’s designer, Melike Tascioglu. The conversation below has been lightly edited for clarity.

What was the path that led you to becoming a book designer?

When I was teenager, I always wanted to be an architect but then I found out about graphic design and was immediately drawn to it. After finishing my degree in Turkey, I went to San Diego State University and took a class called “The Art of the Book”.

This was my first exposure to the idea of making high-quality, limited edition artists’ books. I decided to return to Turkey to continue studying it and did my master’s thesis on book design. I continued on to my Ph.D. and I now teach courses in graphic design and book design at Anadolu University in Eskişehir.

What types of projects do you tend to focus on?

My recent projects have mostly been photo books like Pipe Dreams, focused on social injustice. I enjoy working with books that tell important stories using combinations of images and text.

The books I design tend to be more finely crafted than a mass-market paperback, but they’re also not a completely rarefied art object. I like to work at a space somewhere in between those two settings—that’s my sweet spot.

Tell us about your approach to the creative process.

The first step is the introductions with the team, a very crucial part of the process. If the designer doesn’t see eye to eye with who they’ll be working with, things can be quite hard. So the beginning is important, and I will say that Svetlana [Bachevanova, the head of FotoEvidence] did a very good job here matchmaking between us.

“The creative juices have to rest before they can really start to flow.”

After the initial meeting, I listen, I read, and I try to understand the project as well as I can. For Pipe Dreams, I was very cognizant that DAWNING had already been working on it for many years when I came into the picture. So, I really tried to listen so that the book could speak from their minds.

How do you start to conceptualize the physicality of the book and what it will look like?

Once I’ve understood the project and done some research, I need to just sit with it. I think of this stage a little like proofing bread dough before baking it. The creative juices have to rest before they can really start to flow. After some period of proofing time, I feel ready to start coming up with different approaches to test out, which I turn into prototypes to present to the team.

“As we carry this book, we also carry the container that holds the stories, the weight, the urgency. It is now our turn to carry the jerrycans.”

In this case though, I remember Raul [Roman, DAWNING’s executive director] saying in our very first meeting that he wanted to make the cover yellow, that he had “a vision of yellow.” Soon after, I noticed on the photos the yellow jerrycans that women in Kenya use to carry water. The jerrycans became a kind of symbol to define the book.

And that’s also the cover image of the book, a close-up of a yellow jerrycan.

I was at a gardening shop one weekend, and I saw a yellow jerrycan, and everything just stopped! I asked the shop owner to sell it to me, but he refused, so I spent a few hours studying it, sketching it, and taking photos.

This uncanny alignment offered an empathetic connection: as we carry this book, we also carry the container that holds the stories, the weight, the urgency. It is now our turn to carry the jerrycans.

What tools do you use in the creative process?

I always start thinking with pencil on paper. During the first meeting with the team, I’m already sketching and taking notes. And after the initial meetings when I’m thinking about the process and doing research, I constantly write and doodle everything that comes to mind. Those initial sketches are very important to develop a concept for the book.

At that point, I get to work on my computer, using Adobe InDesign, to see how the pages would actually look. I also used Adobe Firefly for this project. The cover image of the yellow jerrycan is actually an AI generated version of a photo that I refined using Firefly.

AI occupies a somewhat contentious space in the creative/artistic community. How do you see its role in the work that you do?

As long the designer stays in control of the process, I think AI is a useful tool. You have to have an artistic vision and know what you want to do with it. Without that, if you just generate generic images with simple prompts, the result will be amateurish and artificial.

“I never push myself to work on something if I don’t really want to, because then I’d be pushing no joy into that project, and that will taint the results.”

But in the hands of an editor who knows what they’re doing, it helps a lot. For example, having my photos of the jerrycan from the gardening shop was crucial because that allowed me to have an image in my mind of what I was aiming for. With AI, I got help applying the embossed title to the texture and refine it a bit.

What’s the discipline that results in where you want to be as a designer and that results in a good product?

I have a small sticker at home in a visible location of my studio that says “do what you like” (by visual artist Anthony Burrill). I’m so blessed to be doing what I like professionally, but I still like to remind myself constantly to follow that advice. So, if I’m feeling stressed or have a lot on my mind and don’t feel like working on a given project, I postpone without guilt.

“I find the sensory aspects of ink meeting paper to be so enchanting: the feeling of the paper, the way it smells, the color of the ink.”

I never push myself to work on something if I don’t really want to, because then I’d be pushing no joy into that project, and that will taint the results. So I try to wait for the right time, and when I’m in the right headspace and actually can enjoy working on something, it flows so beautifully.

Can you talk a bit more about the craftsmanship that goes into the printing process?

I find the sensory aspects of ink meeting paper to be so enchanting: the feeling of the paper, the way it smells, the color of the ink. I also have experience with printmaking, so I’m familiar with the process. This is why visiting print shops for me is like a child going to Disneyland.

“In the production of any book, the relationship between the designer and the print house is crucial.”

In the production of any book, the relationship between the designer and the print house is crucial. I’m very familiar with the people at Ofset Yapimevi, the print shop we worked with for Pipe Dreams—they’re like sisters and brothers to me. They are one of the best in the world, and we’ve worked together so many times that they easily understand what I want and I know what they’re capable of, and that makes a world of difference.

Printing is a stressful process. There are many choices to make, everything from the type of ink and paper to the right binding methods. And there are always last-minute problems to solve and hurdles to overcome, so good communication is critical. Without a good printer you can rely on, it can easily become a mess.

How did you think about handling the stories portrayed in this book given that many of them involve profound trauma?

You have to be very sensitive when telling such stories. You can’t force a look upon the book; it has to be pure and, in a case like this, it has to be very respectful. So, the approach I decided to take was in a sense minimal, to let the people’s voices shine through.

That approach gave the book a kind of natural intensity that comes through on its own. My job was simply to set the framing and sequencing to allow those stories to be absorbed.

What made this project different from others you’ve worked on?

Before this project I didn’t know much about how problems related to water scarcity affect women. Once I learned more about this issue it felt personal to me, as a woman. This is one of the reasons I felt very proud to do this book. It’s very intense, but such an important topic and I’m happy to be on the team sharing it.

“You can’t force a look upon the book; it has to be pure and, in a case like this, it has to be very respectful.”

It also felt special that the stories were spread across regions, telling not just a single story but multiple narratives across multiple spaces, yet all tying back into this theme of water. The multidimensional nature of the book presented a challenge for me as the designer but also made it an immense privilege to work on.