Created in collaboration with the TED Fellows program, “Swimming Against the Tide – Adventures with the TED Fellows” is a 300-page, full color hard cover coffee table book featuring the work of the TED Fellows. The book, published in partnership with Blurb.com, showcases the fellows’ amazing achievements. Scattered across the globe, the Fellows have managed to pull off amazing feats of art, science, human rights, and everything in between despite having odds stacked against them. Through stunning photographs and a bold/clean design the publication searches to bring their often unrecognized efforts into plain view.
TED: Swimming Against the Tide
Process
With over 360 fellows at the time of publishing, many of whom needed to be represented with a single image and a brief blurb a conceptual structure and rigorous image selection were crucial.
We developed a structure for the book based on an idea of the uniting traits TEDFellows share: (a sense of) Wonder, Kinship, Curiosity, Hope, and Creation. We then distributed the fellows into one of these based on their work. Images were meticulously selected, and the book’s layout and brand were designed to be as minimal as possible.
Results
With a first print run of 3,500 copies, and at 300 pages the book is a great testament to the strength of the program and the caliber of its fellows. Over 300 copies were distributed to fellows during the retreat and the book’s unveiling was an event in itself.
Since then, “Swimming Against The Tide: Adventures with the TED Fellows” has become a calling card for the program, helping to ensure its continued growth and opening up opportunities for current and future fellows. More recently, the book was distributed to over 2,000 members of the TED Conference community through the TED Book Club.
Check out the publisher’s take on the book at the Blurb.com blog
