Unfinished conversations

Sometimes the answers to the hardest questions come from simple conversations. This was the premise for “Unfinished Conversations: On democracy, race, the economy and a path forward,” a book co-commissioned by Unfinished and Ashoka. The publication features 20 conversations with entrepreneurs worldwide led by Ashoka’s Konstanze Frischen and Michael Zakaras. A recent immigrant, Frischen, and somebody who had lived in the U.S. for most of his life, Zakaras, the duo got together to present changemakers’ radical insights, interesting ideas, and powerful voices as the key to understanding and changing a world which is burning in unprecedented change and upheaval. Many of the answers are already out there. The authors took the time to get out there and gather them for you, in a series of simple conversations. Like us, they preferred the informality and the spontaneity of an interview: no prepared questions, no talking points. Just honest reflections about what they are seeing and where we need to go, from some of the leading change makers out there.

We wanted to celebrate their precious work by crafting and designing a book that serves the ideas shared in it. This is why we went for a functional, minimalist and yet beautiful design – straight to the point. To enhance the reading experience and help the reader navigate through the ideas and the people in the book, we commissioned Dutch illustrator Lennard Kok to visualize interviewees and the unique features from their discourse. The book so far has been a huge success, becoming a great communication element for Ashoka. So much so that, a few months after the first release, an extended version with six new entrepreneurs is already in the works. And this is just the beginning.