The Badge of Courage Case Study
Objective
I was tasked with redesigning the book The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, a story about a teenager who enlists with the Union Army in the hopes of fulfilling his dreams of glory. The book was banned because Crane had never been in battle and those that were felt he disgraced the real soldiers. My challenge was to create a new edition which would reinforce the original message of courage and heroism.
Background
Having grown up as a child in the 60s and early 70s, I saw the negative effect of the Vietnam War not only through television but through the political anti-war climate of the day. As I grew up I met soldiers who fought in that war, many not only scarred by their experiences in battle but further traumatized by society’s violent rejection and evil characterization of them as murderers and baby killers. Like the political and societal upheaval that the Civil War caused, the Vietnam War divided us as a country. I wanted to show that despite the negative portrayal of our sailors and soldiers in that war, there were true heroes who bravely fought for our country and exemplified bravery, honor, and sacrifice. In a small way,
I wanted to put a human face on the warrior of Vietnam, who selflessly served silently amidst the growing voices of protest and hate coming from home.
Research
The amount of research was enormous. My first idea was to do a tribute to my friend Ron’s uncle Leonard Van Orden who had been a Navy SEAL in Vietnam. However, after a long, arduous, continued effort by my friend Ron to contact the family, he was unable to get any response from Leonard’s family. So I changed my focus to the exploits of SEAL Team One in the Vietnam War. I spent countless hours reading articles, stories, doing research, gathering photos, and corresponding online with retired SEALs who had served during that time. Then out of the blue, Leonard’s family was interested in helping me out with this book. After a long phone call with their family, they agreed to send me photos and share stories that Leonard had shared with them. Ron, a retired SEAL himself, spent a lot of time explaining the SEAL world to me and editing my work to make sure it was correct. I do wish I would have had the opportunity to meet Leonard before he passed in January 2019. In all of my research for this book, I learned what bravery was all about. Leonard truly encompassed it as a warrior, a husband, a father, a grandfather, and a strong brother in Christ.
Strategy
I chose to run a parallel story throughout the book so that the reader could sense the similarities between the soldiers’ experiences of the Civil War and the Vietnam War. That the horrors of war were inherent in war itself and that bravery and heroism emerged out of the crucible of that horror. To make it personable, I chose to write about Leonard Van Orden, a modern warrior who exemplified incredible courage in the jungles of Vietnam. By allowing his family to tell his story, the book took on Leonard’s spirit and grew into a small family album of his bravery and service to our Country.
Design Solutions
Once I finally concluded in my mind exactly what I was going to do, the development went fairly smoothly. I wished I had set up the pages for bleeds and laid the pages out differently to not make it look like some cheap novel from 1950 but I unfortunately played it safe. The cover design went through a few minimal changes. The book itself stayed the same format and layout throughout with the exception of moving pictures around when the topic changed from SEAL Team One to Leonard Van Orden. The most refinement came in the form of numerous text edits, formatting and reformatting information, changing photos to black and white, correcting stories that I heard verbally and misunderstood or misinterpreted in what I was told. It was the same process with my friend Ron’s edits. Ron went through and patiently explained what was correct and what was not and why it wasn’t.
After setting up our InDesign files and printing out the book in sets of 12 pages, the process of putting it together begins by measuring and punching holes into the paper. Then the sewing, gluing, measuring, cutting, more gluing, and assembly begins. The cover for the book was a faux brown leather that was difficult to glue down. I went through a couple variations of colors for the paper cover and eventually chose brown for its earthiness. War is dirty and never glamorous, much less jungle warfare in the mud of the river banks. Brown seemed an appropriate choice,
Challenges
Since I had started out without any of the information from the Van Orden family to support my original idea, my focus turned to getting any and all information about SEAL Team One’s exploits in Rung Sat, Vietnam. I spent countless hours trying to chase down the sources of pictures I found but to no avail. After I had formatted all the information to tell that story, the opportunity presented itself to change everything back to being about the exploits and life of Leonard Van Orden. It was difficult not only to switch stories and basically start over, but it soon become apparent the Van Orden family was emotionally invested in the book. I was running out of time so I gave up on a more developed plot and focused on making the book more a pictograph of Leonard’s life. I will say the whole process was a learning experience.
I still didn’t create the original storyline I had envisioned and for that I am disappointed. But the Van Orden family was very pleased with the way it turned out. One of the family members told me that it has brought healing to share Leonard’s story to a stranger. For that fact alone, I am thankful to have worked on this book.
Poster Brief