100 Women of Limerick, a hardback book by Sharon Slater published by Ormston House offers a unique anthology that aims to celebrate Limerick women’s history. We worked with Ormston House to design a book that features the stories of women from Limerick city and county and their contributions in various fields including art, acting, music, writing, education, science, politics, Irish nationalism, suffrage, war, religion, the Shamrock League, business, philanthropy, sport, tragedies and crime. The book was launched on International Women’s Day 8 March 2022. 100 Women of Limerick was honored with a Bronze Shark Award in the Editorial Design category in 2022, and was also a shortlisted for an IDI Award in the Book Design category.
What we did:
- Graphic Design
- Book Design
DESIGN CONCEPT — We collaborated with Ormson House and Sharon Slater to design a 274 pages resource publication that addresses Limerick women’s underrepresentation in written history. Bold and assertive, the purpose of the typographical system is to reflect the present and the past together, working to bring light to these women’s lives and achievements. The font selection should also be allowed to layout extremely different levels of information, from big headings and quotes to 827 references.
BOOK LAYOUT — We defined a rich colour palette that allowed us to assign a different colour to each of the 17 chapters. Each section dedicates two pages to a woman, who was born in or spent a significant period of their life in Limerick. One of the main challenges of the project’s brief was, in many cases, the complete absence or the poor quality of photographic material, another evidence of women’s underrepresentation in history. We defined a flexible layout that allowed us to showcase the women’s life, contributions and achievements with confidence and without the need for any pictures.
