Gaelic in Edinburgh through the Centuries
I was commissioned by Wilson McLeod of Ionad Gàidhlig Dhùn Èideann – a community initiative to develop a Gaelic hub in Edinburgh – to design a cover for a bilingual book about the history of Gaelic in Edinburgh. Challenging the common misconception that Gaelic was ‘never spoken here’, the book looks at the role of Gaelic in Edinburgh from the Middle Ages to the present day, including history, demography, place-names, literature and education. As a starting point for the design, the organisation provided me with three photographs, all showing contemporary uses of Gaelic in Edinburgh, including one of graffiti on Salisbury Crags.
I developed several draft options which I presented to the organisation. These options included various iterations using the photographs I had been given as well as purely typographic treatments. After much discussion, the organisation selected an option which featured the photographs collaged with blocks of colours sampled from the images, layered with background textural elements that echoed the textures in some of the images. As I developed the design further, the organisation provided a fourth image – of a school sign in Gaelic – which I used on the front cover, freeing up an image for the back cover. The cover was designed so that the elements of the front cover wrapped around the spine to the back cover creating a cohesive design. The back cover design was less complex so it could accommodate information about the book (in English and Gaelic), as well as the logo of Ionad Gàidhlig Dhùn Èideann.
The book can be purchased here.
