Voices for Hip-Hop & Rap
Editorial Design & Awareness Campaign (Part 2)
Self-directed project
Tools: Adobe InDesign, Adobe Illustrator
May 2020
Here is an editorial book entitled Voices for Hip-Hop & Rap. This project was the second piece in my campaign to raise awareness of the positive effects that Hip-Hop and Rap can have. I started by putting together a survey and sending it out to a select group of people, asking them about their personal experiences with Hip-Hop and Rap, and what the music meant to them. Once I had enough responses, I used them to build a book. The content isn't mine. It's theirs. I just gave it a home.
The cover design keeps it simple on purpose, just bold typography, no imagery, just the gradient doing the emotional work. I didn't want anything to distract from the voices inside.
The book is organized into three chapters: Truth, Healing, and Power. Each chapter groups responses around its theme and pairs them with the environmental photography I selected to represent that theme abstractly. The images aren't literal; they're meant to feel like the chapter rather than illustrate it. The erupting volcano in the Power chapter isn't there to show power; it's there to express it. That distinction mattered to me.
Color runs through the whole book as a structural element. Orange and magenta carry across the pages and images, tying the chapters together and keeping the energy consistent. The cover uses a purple-to-gold gradient that extends that warmth outward, signaling the genre's range before you even open it.
This wasn't just a book. It was proof that the conversation was already happening. It just needed somewhere to live.