Credit: Simon & Schuster
EW: Did you know right away the design approach, or was it a bit of process to get there?
TD: With the folks at Simon & Schuster, I explored several design options including a minimalistic graphic approach and a version featuring just the fantastic creatures; however, both takes seemed limited. They either did not capture the scope of the story or the classic fairy tale “vibe”, which had served as inspiration. I searched outside of the book world for design ideas. I checked out the latest comic books, video games and movies — all aimed at our reading audience of 6-10 years old. When I saw the collage-styled imagery that adorned family genre DVDs, I knew I was onto something. After all, the size of a DVD case is about the same as the books.
NEXT: Book 4
