The Word Wizard
CLIENT STORY:
We worked with the artist in Rome, Italy to develop this traditionally illustrated children’s book. We love working with writers and illustrators to bring a book to life! We were especially excited to work with the accomplished children’s book illustrator, Laura Orsolini, in Rome, Italy, for this project.
The author, Andrew J. Carpenter hired Ms. Orsolini and worked directly with her to create the original storyboard, then the three of us met virtually to plan the book details.
Mr. Carpenter wrote the story as a series of experiences in a boy’s daily life as he is befriended by a mischievous wizard. Laura illustrated her vision of these moments by creating pencil sketches and then submitted them to the author for approval.
She works in the traditional method of hand drawn illustrations. It was impressive to see the dedication she made to get every detail correct, especially as “undo” and “delete” were not options. With the final approval of each drawing she applied rich color in a mix of acrylic painting, pastels and China Ink and the story came to life.
The reader will be especially pleased at the details she hid in plain sight to enhance the story line.
PROJECT SCOPE:
Although we built a sample book to help the author visualize the process, our work really began when the manuscript was finalized and the images were finished. Ms. Orsolini brought the original art to a service bureau in Rome and the scanned them at a high resolution for print.
The digital files were then sent to us and we positioned each one on the page with the appropriate text. We suggested several typography options and the author chose this font because of it’s “wizard like” feel. Whenever the magic happens we chose to emphasize the changed letters by adjusting the size and color – making the visual stronger.
When the final version was approved we uploaded pdf’s to IngramSpark. We chose to use them as the book distributor for all three versions, the hard cover, the paperback and the fixed layout ebook. We created mockups of the book cover and used sections of the artwork for social media and digital marketing.
- Self-publishing consulting
- Artwork consulting and recommendations for print
- Typography design on interior
- Book layout with story and supplied art
- Cover layout with supplied art
- Marketing images for website and social media
The Word Wizard is available online Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Mr. Carpenter is also selling his books directly on his website. The Word Wizard has become a favorite with Becky’s grandchildren as they seek to be the first to find the wizard’s hat in each illustration!
- Adobe Illustrator CC
- Adobe InDesign CC
- Adobe Photoshop CC
- Book Design and Layout
- Print Design
