A chilly Minnesota autumn evening and two children in search of the perfect pumpkin are the inspiration for this fun, “slightly spooky” tale by author Patrick Eichers.
Drawing his inspiration from around him (including the two title characters, shown here with their likenesses), Pat needed help turning his sketched ideas into a book he would be proud to share with his family, his community, and beyond.
“Thank you for your leadership and design ideas … I greatly appreciate the work we all put into this accomplishment.”
Project Recap
Although Pat brought an engineer’s mindset—and spreadsheets—to the project, he also realised that the best results come from having fun.
A passion project of sorts for him, it was a true collaboration of ideas and discussions as we worked together to create the book’s final form.
Design Reflection
As I often do with picture books, I began by typesetting the manuscript into a “blank” layout. Although in this case, Pat had already created rough sketches for the how he saw the story visually evolving. This was great as it allowed us to get an initial look at the pacing of the book—and give him time to revise and reduce places where he had way too much text.
By bringing in frequent collaborator and illustrator Anna Granholm, I was able to step back and let Anna and Pat turn his sketches into working drawings—guiding the composition only as much as needed for text placement.
As the images took shape, I was able to step back in and start matching the type to the mood and spirit of the story. Shown here are four early front cover concepts.
The cover image was purpose-built and more-or-less followed Pat’s original idea—but expertly crafted by Anna. This set the style and tone for the images throughout the book.
