Jamila Alemi
Jamila Alemi is a Dutch-Afghan graphic designer based in Arnhem, the Netherlands.
She recently graduated from ArtEZ Arnhem with a bachelor's degree in Graphic Design.
Her projects touch upon a wide range of topics, from found footage and social media culture
to an installation exploring refugee representation in the media.
Me Talk Pretty One Day
2025
In
collaboration with Fay Buurman & Jara Hermanns
Me Talk Pretty One Day is a redesign of the book by David Sedaris, developed around the themes of travel, language, and dislocation. In the original, Sedaris reflects on his move from the United States to France, navigating a new culture and the awkwardness of learning a new language, experiences that shape much of the book’s tone and structure.
The design draws from the visual language of public transit and travel documents. Long and narrow in format, the proportions reference folded metro maps, while the book opens and closes with alternating layers of grey and yellow paper. Perforated lines of holes appear across these early and final pages, resembling the tear-off markings of transport tickets.
Throughout the book, references to transit systems are woven into the structure. The title pages display a vertical line with 27 black dots, each representing a chapter. The current chapter is indicated by a punched-out hole in place of its dot, marking it like a stop on a route. This visual system continues in the running header, where the same transit line reappears horizontally across each spread. A larger black dot marks the reader’s current chapter, and the line gently shifts in height, beginning high on the left page and dropping slightly lower
on the right, to subtly indicate the transition from part one to part two.
Typography was chosen to echo the tone of the writing.
Katari is used for quoted speech, capturing the bold, outspoken character of Sedaris’s voice, while EB Garamond carries the rest of the text with a more grounded, narrative rhythm.
Tight margins and long text frames reflect the density and pacing of Sedaris’s storytelling.
Rather than simply framing the text, the redesign mirrors its rhythm, quietly shaped by movement, structure, and shifts in language. Me Talk Pretty One Day becomes not just a book to read, but one to navigate, punched, paced, and mapped like a journey of its own.
︎More info & stills
Me Talk Pretty One Day is a redesign of the book by David Sedaris, developed around the themes of travel, language, and dislocation. In the original, Sedaris reflects on his move from the United States to France, navigating a new culture and the awkwardness of learning a new language, experiences that shape much of the book’s tone and structure.
The design draws from the visual language of public transit and travel documents. Long and narrow in format, the proportions reference folded metro maps, while the book opens and closes with alternating layers of grey and yellow paper. Perforated lines of holes appear across these early and final pages, resembling the tear-off markings of transport tickets.
Throughout the book, references to transit systems are woven into the structure. The title pages display a vertical line with 27 black dots, each representing a chapter. The current chapter is indicated by a punched-out hole in place of its dot, marking it like a stop on a route. This visual system continues in the running header, where the same transit line reappears horizontally across each spread. A larger black dot marks the reader’s current chapter, and the line gently shifts in height, beginning high on the left page and dropping slightly lower
on the right, to subtly indicate the transition from part one to part two.
Typography was chosen to echo the tone of the writing.
Katari is used for quoted speech, capturing the bold, outspoken character of Sedaris’s voice, while EB Garamond carries the rest of the text with a more grounded, narrative rhythm.
Tight margins and long text frames reflect the density and pacing of Sedaris’s storytelling.
Rather than simply framing the text, the redesign mirrors its rhythm, quietly shaped by movement, structure, and shifts in language. Me Talk Pretty One Day becomes not just a book to read, but one to navigate, punched, paced, and mapped like a journey of its own.
︎More info & stills