Find Me - A Book Illustration Project for Chronicle Books.
ABOUT
I was hired by Chronicle Books to create the cover and eleven photo-illustration spreads for a seek-and-find children’s book, with the working title Find Me!. The goal of the book was for a child to search through each page and look for their own image. Additionally, custom text relating to the reader, such as their name, home state and school name, are printed on the cover and hidden inside the photographs throughout the book. This book was published last year and can be seen online here.
Find Me
A photo-illustration book project for Chronicle Books.
DESIGN CHALLENGES
Design each layout to accommodate various custom elements, such as creating versions of each final photo to incorporate varying the letters of a child's name to range 2- 17 characters.
Combine the parameters of the printing technology while making the book a challenge for a child ages 5-8 years old.
Using themes given by the publisher, extensively source props to create the final photo set.
Create unique graphic design elements, ranging from greeting cards, crossword puzzles, bumper stickers and drawings, to posters, buttons and many other items.
Use Photoshop extensively to combine and montage layers from different source files.
Manage final delivery of various versions of each page, to accommodate varying length of letters in a name and provide each letter element for printer to drop in for final printing.
Sabine’s walk through Find Sabine:
The best way to experience the challenge of this book, is to look through it yourself as if you are the child it was intended for. Uploading the photo below, as well as information such as the home state of North Carolina and a school name, these elements will be custom printed for you and hidden within. Looking at the below examples, imagine you are 8 year old Sabine, looking for your picture:
Within this busy buttons image, Sabine has to find her photo 6 times, and her school name 2x:
In this image, Sabine’s name is featured twice, and other elements are called out to search for:
Sabine’s photo is hidden in this photo twice, as well as her home state (North Carolina) being listed twice:
Sabine’s name is printed within the art on the refrigerator eight times and, as well as the magnets spelled out a number of different words relating to the title of the book:
The Scrabble board had to be created so that it didn’t actually cross any copyright infringement from copying Mattel’s Scrabble game. Additional letter tiles had to be located to deviate from the game. Also, the child’s name was hidden in the board, and single tiles had to be provided in order that a custom name could be put in the book, ranging from 2 letters up to 17. See if you can find “Sabine”!
Within this collage of greeting cards, Sabine’s name is written four times:
Creating this locker scene called for an extensive amount of set design and propping. Using various school-related elements, Sabine’s name is hidden here in three places, as well as her school name:
In this travel-themed collage, Sabine’s name is listed twice and other elements are called out to locate within:
In this photo page of postcards, Sabine’s name is printed in four times, and her address is included as well:
