When I first heard of the final project that we had to do in our Literature for Children and Adolescents class, I knew just how to take our project over the top!  We were asked to create a Math Trail Children’s Book that showed math in nature or other real world settings.  The examples that were shown to us were binders with pages that left much to be desired.  We were given some class time and told that we could use our cell phones to take pictures.  On the first day, we set a local mall as our backdrop, and at this time, I asked to be the group photographer (we would not be using camera photos for the book, believe me the camera makes a huge difference in the quality of your images).  After our pictures and story themes were in place, I suggested that we  use one of my vendors to have this book professionally bound, so that we could have a real hardcover children’s book.  When we presented the book last week, our teacher was absolutely amazed.  She kept looking for proof that we did not make this book or take the photographs, even though I assured her that I am professional photographer, and I regularly design books like these for my clients!  Now we went totally above and beyond what was expected (the place I love to operate at), and for me this meant making time among everything else to “optimize” the photos and do all of the page layouts for this 28-page book – but to see the look on our professor’s face and to know that we raised the standard of expectation was PRICELESS!

This experience was different than the previous books I’d designed for the mere fact that it was text-heavy, which adds another element to the design.  But all in all, it was a great experience.  Who knows, I may be moving in this direction in the near future!  We’ll see how things work out!

Below I have included images from this book.