#IamYezidi — Khalsa Aid International
Designing a sensitive exhibition publication around the voices and experiences of Yezidi women.
#IamYezidi was a photographic exhibition exploring the experiences of Yezidi women in Iraq, bringing together portrait photography and individual accounts of loss, captivity, survival and resilience. The exhibition was held to raise awareness.
The accompanying publication was designed as a free take-away piece for visitors to the London exhibition, allowing those stories to continue beyond the exhibition space
The challenge
The photography, written content and a loose visual direction were supplied, but the material needed a clearer editorial system.
The subject matter required particular sensitivity. The publication needed to give each woman’s story sufficient space and dignity without allowing the design itself to become dominant.
Biographical information and portrait photography also needed to work together consistently across a substantial publication.
The strategic approach
Rather than introducing unnecessary visual devices, the focus was on clarity, restraint and hierarchy.
A more suitable editorial typeface was recommended to retain the character of the original direction while improving legibility, particularly across longer passages of text.
Alignment and composition were also reconsidered so that quotations, biographical information and imagery worked more naturally together.
The aim was to create a publication in which the design supported the stories rather than competing with them.
The response
A restrained editorial system was developed using typography, white space, scale and consistent placement to create a clear rhythm throughout the publication.
Individual stories are given their own space, pairing personal quotations and biographical information with full-page portraits.
Later sections widen the perspective through documentary photography of the surrounding communities, camps and Khalsa Aid’s humanitarian work, moving the publication from individual testimony into a broader sense of place and context.
The work included:
- Editorial design
- Typographic direction
- Information hierarchy
- Page composition
- Image and text sequencing
- Preparation of the final exhibition publication
The outcome
The completed publication accompanied the #IamYezidi exhibition in London and was distributed free to visitors.
Rather than functioning simply as exhibition collateral, it became a physical record of the project — allowing the portraits and individual stories presented within the exhibition to be taken away, read and considered beyond the gallery space.
Decode
Viewed through Ampersans’ current Decode framework, the project required an understanding of context, audience and the responsibility involved in presenting traumatic lived experience.
The design needed to recognise the emotional weight of the material while remaining clear, accessible and respectful.
Distil
Viewed through Distill, the supplied photography and written material were reduced into a consistent editorial language.
Typography, hierarchy, alignment and pacing created a quiet structure that allowed the individual voices and portraits to remain central.
How this reflects the Ampersans approach
#IamYezidi demonstrates how communication design can require restraint as much as expression.
The role of the design was not to add another layer of meaning to the stories, but to understand what the material required and create the conditions for it to communicate clearly and with dignity.
Client
Khalsa Aid International
Discipline
Editorial Design · Exhibition Communication · Information Design