Echoes of Bravery - Book Illustration & Design

In the summer of 2024, I was brought in to the Anoka County Historical Society to help wrangle a publication project that was getting too big for it’s britches - Echoes of Bravery: The Vietnam Veterans Experience. I had always been a history buff, but it wasn’t until I joined the team on this project that I realized how little I knew about the Vietnam War - and I wasn’t expected for the impact it had on me.

Cover Design - Hand Illustrated by Sarah Zecchini

Echoes of Bravery is the 3rd Volume in the series, from the first publication in 2005 and it’s companion book in 2006. These books were the compilation of hours of personal interview and testimony of the men and women in Anoka County who experienced the Vietnam War first hand.

I pored over Volumes 1 & 2, and worked alongside the Executive Director Rebecca & Volunteer Coordinator Jo Rohady, to identify gaps and bridge themes, and to have a look at the families and stories 20 years later. I listened to hours of original interviews, dove deep into the history of not only the war itself but the history of the Vietnamese people and how it came to be that they won the war. We looked at the horrors of the war & how the veterans were treated when they returned home - if they came home. And how their fates impacted their families - for generations.

Close up of watercolor painting I created for the book called “Winged Echo”