Book cover · Art direction · Print · 2024
We designed the cover for Being in the Soil, the memoir by author and former soccer player Lára Kristín Pedersen. The book is about her years-long battle with food addiction — the feeling of being alone underground, in the soil, darkness all around, and blossoming anyway. We turned that idea into a cover where two sides collide: a raw, honest black-and-white portrait on the front, and a living gradient from orange into magenta and violet on the back — light breaking up through the soil.
Being in the Soil
Memoirs of a Food Addict
The challenge
How do you give a vulnerable diary about shame and addiction a cover that feels honest without turning clinical or sensational — and that still carries hope?
Our approach
We built everything around a single image idea: darkness versus bloom. The black-and-white portrait keeps it human and sincere; the warm gradient stands for growth pushing up through the soil. A small sprout mark and a warm serif make the whole thing soft, hopeful and recognisable on the shelf.
The full jacket
Front, spine and back — the complete wraparound design.
In detail
- 01Black-and-white portrait on the front — raw, honest, human
- 02Living gradient orange → magenta → violet: light breaking through the soil
- 03Sprout mark as a symbol of growth out of the soil
- 04Warm serif title — soft and hopeful, never clinical
- 05Subtitle: “Memoirs of a Food Addict”
- 06ISBN 978-9935-25-786-4
Review
“This book is full of hidden depths, it’s so brilliantly written that I hope Lára writes many more books when she hangs up her boots. The painful becomes funny, the everyday becomes poetic, the angry becomes thought-provoking. This is one of those books that makes a person … a better human being.”
Auður Jónsdóttir — Author
What we did
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