“Break books into the mainstream cultural conversation and play with their content in formats not traditionally associated with books to encourage occasional book buyers to engage with them on a deeper level.“ - Penguin Books’ 2022 D&AD brief.

For this project I drew most of my inspiration from one of Penguin’s quotes, “We make books for everyone, because a book can change anyone”. As I began my research, I was very interested in the concept of free libraries that I had seen in North America. I liked how they were often in neighbourhoods and other quiet community areas. A big role of these free libraries is connecting communities and making books available to everyone. This is something that I took forward during my creative process. I was also interested in making pre-loved books more relevant for the sake of accessibility and sustainability. What makes books valuable? Through my research, I discovered that readers’ attach a lot of sentimental value to their favourite books and that in many cases dust jackets add value to books as well. I wanted to merge these two concepts to create a physical sleeve that carried the intrinsic value of a book.

On Your Sleeve Library was born! Comprised of foldable book sleeves, community libraries, and donation points, On Your Sleeve Library encourages reading while being accessible. The book sleeves are designed to place human interaction and sentiment first, restoring value to old books all while being functional for use.