This contest invites undergraduate students from Morehouse College, Spelman College, and Clark Atlanta University to design the official cover of Love Saved Me — a memoir by Crystal Files.
The AUC community holds a sacred place in this story. Christion Files was a Morehouse man. The love of that community became part of Crystal's healing. This contest is an invitation to pour that love back into something lasting.
The winning design will appear on the published cover of Love Saved Me.
The winning student will receive a $2,500 scholarship, awarded in Fall 2026. Collaborative submissions — two to three students, from the same or different AUC institutions — are welcome.
About the contest
The Design Requirement
What Is Kintsugi — and Why It Is the Soul of This Book
"Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold. The cracks are not hidden. They are illuminated. What was shattered becomes sacred. The vessel, once restored, is stronger than it was before."
In Love Saved Me, kintsugi is not a metaphor used lightly.
It is the book's entire philosophy.
Crystal discovered the word in the months following the loss of her son Christion — and recognized in it the image she had been living without a name for. The breaking had not ended her. It had become the beginning of the art.
Every submission to this contest must meaningfully incorporate kintsugi as both visual language and thematic foundation. Students who design something decorative will miss the mark. Students who design something true to what this word holds will create something worthy of this book.
- Fracture and restoration — held together, not shown in sequence
- Gold as healing, not as wealth or decoration
- Love as the agent of repair — maternal, communal, spiritual, self-directed
- A woman who is not defined by her breaking, but by what she became inside it
WHAT THE COVER NEEDS TO HOLD
Love Saved Me
A memoir by Crystal Files
Since Christion passed, my prayer has been simple: Do not let this be in vain. And when my marriage ended, that prayer deepened.
If I must walk through fire, let there be warmth for someone else.
My willingness to be vulnerable is not weakness. It is inheritance. It is calling. It is power. When we tell the truth about our fractures, we free others from pretending."
— Foreword, Love Saved Me · March 2, 2026
Love Saved Me is a memoir about a season when love was both taken from me and asked everything of me. A what love does when it has nowhere left to go but deeper.
On September 4, 2023, my twenty-year-old son, Christion Files, passed away during his junior year at Morehouse College. Eighteen months later, I saw clearly what had been fracturing in my marriage. The ending of us did not begin with the loss of him - but grief has a way of revealing every crack.
Two losses. A breaking open that I did not choose, but could not escape.
What followed was not a recovery — it was a revelation. That love, in its many forms, is what saved me. Not romantic love, not perfect love. But love in the hands of my daughters. Love in friends who refused to let me disappear. Love in community. Love in faith. And finally, the love I learned to extend to myself.
The book is structured around the many forms love takes: Unconditional Love · Love as Legacy · Love is in the Details · Filial Love · Infinite Love · Love that Teaches · Love that Frees · Love that Won't Give Up · Love that Surrenders
About Crystal Files
Crystal is a VP-level executive, author, and emerging speaker whose work lives at the intersection of corporate leadership, personal healing, and the transformative power of love. She is the mother of three. She is a woman who has navigated professional achievement and profound personal loss at the same time — and who believes that vulnerability is not a liability, but an inheritance. Love Saved Me is her first memoir. It is the book she wrote by walking through it — step by step, morning by morning, word by word.
Eligibility & Submission Details
Who Can Enter
Open to currently enrolled undergraduate students at:
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Morehouse College
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Spelman College
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Clark Atlanta University
Collaborative submissions of two to three students are welcome.
Collaborators may be from the same institution or different AUC schools.
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Final cover design — 300 dpi minimum, print-ready, 6" × 9" memoir format
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Artist statement (300–500 words) — your interpretation of kintsugi in relation to the book's themes, and the intentional choices in your design
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Process documentation — at least 3 images or sketches showing the evolution of your concept from idea to final design
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Eligibility form — confirming your enrollment and AUC institution
WHAT TO SUBMIT
ACCEPTED MEDIA
Digital illustration · Photography-based design Mixed media (digitized)
Traditional art (digitized at required resolution)
All final files must be submitted as high-resolution PDF or TIFF
Working files (Photoshop, Illustrator, Procreate) are not required but may be requested from finalists
Judging Criteria
Conceptual Depth
25%
How meaningfully kintsugi is interpreted — not as decoration, but as the philosophical foundation the design is built on.
Emotional Resonance
Does it feel like the book? Does it hold the weight of love, loss, and gold in the same image?
25%
Visual Execution
Craft, composition, typography, and technical quality. A beautiful idea must also be beautifully executed.
25%
Originality
A distinctive artistic voice. The cover should be unmistakably the student's — not a familiar genre template.
25%
Key Dates
Spring 2006
Submissions Open
The contest page goes live and the submission portal opens
August 1, 2026
All Submissions Due
Final cover design, artist statement, process documentation, and eligibility form must be submitted by 11:59 PM EST.
Sept. 4, 2026
The Winning Design Revealed
September 4 is the third anniversary of Christion's passing. The announcement on this date is intentional and sacred — a way of honoring him through the art his community creates.
Fall 2026
$2,500 Scholarship Disbursed
Awarded directly to the winning student (or divided equally among collaborators) for the Fall 2026 semester.
The cover you design will carry this story
into the world
Submit by August 1, 2026
Read the foreword.
Sit with kintsugi.
Create something true.
Alongside your final high-resolution design (PDF or TIFF), include a brief Artist Statement (300-500 words) articulating your conceptual choices and personal process.
The book's title 'Love Saved Me' and the author 'Crystal Files' must be integrated into the design. We suggest selecting typography that mirrors the depth and resilience of the text.
Questions? Email crystal@crystalfiles.co