Pamay Group
Living continuous learning every day
by Kerry LaCoste
This story begins in 2009. While living and running my design firm in Chicago, I had the opportunity to design and brand a book for the Chief Diversity Officer of Hewitt Associates (now AON). We had an extended team handling different responsibilities based on each individual’s expertise. This is where I met Ekpedeme “Pamay” Bassey for the first time. Her specialization was eLearning, which placed her well ahead of her time 12 years ago. Little did I know then that meeting and working with Pamay would set me on a path that led to the formation of Tomorrow U.
Navigating sacred spaces
A few years after working on the Hewitt diversity book project, Pamay contacted me about designing a cover for a new book she had written. It was about visiting different churches of many different religions for one year. The book was called My 52 Weeks of Worship: Lessons from a Global, Spiritual, Interfaith Journey. I also worked with Pamay on designing marketing materials and a press kit for the book.
In the fall of 2020, Pamay and I once again partnered on her follow-up to My 52 Weeks of Worship. Her new book, Navigating Sacred Spaces, included a weekly journal that answered questions about what she had learned from her experiences from writing the previous book. My team and I designed the entire new book inside and out.
Learning our way through everything
While we were designing Navigating Sacred Spaces, Pamay also had us design her third book, entitled Let’s Learn Our Way Through It, Shall We? Pamay began it as an experiment to document a lesson she herself would learn each day for one year. She then created the book as a personal-growth tool for inspiring teams to commit to learning something new each day as well.
Even though this “learning journal” was for employees in corporate settings, Pamay wanted it to have a non-corporate look and feel. Her vision was for it to be inviting, inspirational and aspirational, as nature is for us each day. So naturally, we adopted a theme of nature exploration, outdoor activities and wildlife to set the tone for this learning environment.
Engagement Marketing
Theme-concept Development Content Visualization
Graphic & Brand Design
Book-cover Design
Book-interior Design
Book Production
365 total lessons
The book’s content was divided into four main sections with 365 total lessons (one for each day of the calendar year). Pamay uses each lesson to raise a learning challenge for the reader based on her own 365 days of learning. She then encourages readers to write down thoughts for their further learning and development. Throughout the book, photos and illustrations relating to nature and the lessons support the theme and engage the reader in unexpected ways.
“I have had the pleasure of working with Kerry LaCoste for over a decade, first when I was a project manager of a book that required his graphical expertise, and then as I wrote and published three of my own books, two of which required an end-to-end graphical-design approach and implementation.
When I work with Kerry, I know he will be responsive and thoughtful and will challenge me to ensure that the result is high quality. He focuses on being a partner in the process of creating something lasting, beautiful and impactful. I have been delighted by the work that he has done for my passion projects and related publications.”
Pamay Bassey Chief Experience Officer, The Pamay Group