How to Dream Among the Stars - Book design & Layout
Design Challenge:
Four weeks to design a children’s book that is both compelling for children but deep for adults. Written, illustrated and hand bound in house by me. All original artwork and poetry was the a primary objective. By designing a series of compelling illustrations to inspire the imagination I settled on a cosmic uniting factor, to bring back the idea of storytelling under the starry sky. These made up consolations were meant to instill whimsicality to it viewers. Accompanying a poem about dreams these constellations guide a person through their dreams.
Solution:
Using poetry to articulate to children that stars protect and guide them, adults can also enjoy the rich visual storytelling and the deeper aspects of the poem. By using full bleed compositions to pull you into the mindset of the book along a mono chromatic color pallet sets the stage. Illustrations were designed through a process of printing reference materials at a large scale then using tracing paper and multiple drafts develop characters. These characters were then placed into Photoshop and manipulated digitally to have a constellation adaptation applied. The result was a visually stunning cast of characters encountered leading us to happy dreams.
