Imagine: Reflections on Peace | Imagine: Penser la Paix

Published in October 2020 by Hemeria in both English and French editions, as Imagine: Reflections on Peace and Imagine: Penser la Paix, this 408-page book, exhibition, and educational curriculum, an initiative of the VII Foundation conceived to encourage discourse around peacebuilding and the aftermath of conflict. Covering six post-conflict societies, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Colombia, Lebanon, Northern Ireland, and Rwanda, the book brings together world-renowned photojournalists and writers including Samantha Power, Jonathan Powell, Philip Gourevitch, Jon Lee Anderson, Robin Wright, Don McCullin, Ron Haviv, Gilles Peress, and Gary Knight, with a foreword endorsed by former US Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright and Angelina Jolie in her role as UNHCR Special Envoy. The book’s exhibition has toured internationally, with showings at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington D.C., the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo, and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum in Geneva.

de.MO was commissioned to design the book, documentary photography book design work that required a flexible layout system capable of carrying readers through an ambitious combination of written essays, photographic narratives, and long-form captions across 408 pages. We developed a column structure that allowed the layout to breathe and vary across sections while maintaining coherence throughout. A bold typographic cover and section dividers were designed to cut through on the shelf and signal the weight and urgency of the content within.