Happy If You Know It

For Jen’s collaboration with and indie publisher she was creatively ambitious. Happy If You Know It is an anthology all about asking questions about what makes women happy. Specifically, how is intuition linked to happiness?

Visually, Jen was struck by the conceptual binaries: happy/ sad; right/ wrong; mind/ heart, etc. Jen researched other books with women on the cover and didn’t find the fierce figure she was craving. Jen loved the idea of combining a literal expression of creativity (paint strokes and blobs) with a stoic black-and-white portrait. Jen loved working with a photographer and an illustrator on the cover. She also collaborated closely with a painter to create a pull out art pamphlet. 

The inner pages of the book were designed with the same care as the cover. Visual “doors” introduced each contributor’s story coupled with bio-poems that were typeset with care. The feel of the book is literary, a tiny bit feminine and authoritative. It is always a deep pleasure to bring ideas to life and this time was no exception!