A wonderful little book combining a number of local business to create a very PINK bedtime story to raise money for Breast Cancer Now on the Isle of Man.
Written by local author Robert Cowley and illustrated by a very talented 14 year old schoolgirl, Karmen St John-Cain, PINK tells the tale of a grandmother's unconditional love and the adventure that follows to deliver some fairy magic to her grand-daughter across Manx waters.
I was tasked with the creation of the book itself, including digitising all the illustrations, creating the cover, page design and typesetting.
A very PINK cover design full of sparkles and bubbly text.
A small selection of the illustrations that I digitised from Karmen's sketches.
This process allowed me to edit certain colours and extend sections of the illustration to better sit across each page, making for more interesting compositions.
Digitising the illustrations meant I could remove and resize sections for use elsewhere, such as this little selection of fairy poses that we were able to use separately from their main composition.
I tried to give the illustrations as much emphasis on the page as possible whilst adhering to the set number of pages and keeping the text as large as possible for young readers.
The book was typeset in Sassoon Primary - a typeface designed specifically to improve legibility for younger readers. It most closely represents the letterforms that children are taught in school, with rounded counters, long ascenders and descenders and exit strokes that clump words together along the baseline. The slight slant makes blocks of text easier to read.
It was decided that the book would feature a perforated colouring in section at the back, for young readers to tear out and colour in - inspired by a drawing (top right image) from a couple of the author's youngest book reviewers!
A couple of posters I designed to be displayed at promotional events for the book.
These are the posters I designed to advertise "Magical Mythical Creatures Day" at the Family Library to promote the launch of the book. Adapted for Facebook and Instagram.
A picture of illustrator Karmen (left), author Robert (right) and a couple of representatives from the chosen charity; Breast Cancer Now at the soft book launch at the Family Library. (Featuring the book and posters!)
I also took a couple of pictures of the book displayed in local bookstore, Lexicon, and in a local Shoprite supermarket store on the Isle of Man. How exciting!
