Little Birdie Buddies of Love and Little Birdie Buddies of Hope are my fifth and sixth books with author-illustrator Heather Boschke—and our first for adult readers. Both books grew out of Heather’s own personal experiences and her desire to help others find support in difficult times.
Where Heather’s earlier books (Babies, Waterfowl, and Minnesota/Wisconsin) share her love of birds with children, these books pair her hand-drawn bird portraits with short, free-verse reflections for readers moving through loss and uncertainty.
A Look Inside
We began by discussing comparable gift books to find the right form factor, then I researched the market, built the typography, structure, and visual system that let each book stand on its own while sharing a quiet, elegant sensibility.
Throughout, I worked closely with Heather—steering decisions on type, color, and structure—while keeping her voice and intent at the center of every page.
Little Birdie Buddies of Hope
Little Birdie Buddies of Love
Setting the Tone
A book’s tone often comes from emotions an author feels but doesn’t name. Seeking these kinds of nuanced details out is one of the most rewarding aspects of my design work. Talking with Heather during our initial design discussion, I looked for those opportunities—small choices that, together, shape how a reader feels before they know why.
For example, a single red feather, pulled from Heather’s own art, repeats across the book in different forms. Small as it is, this motif does some of the book’s heaviest lifting—tying cover, spine, and interior together, and giving readers a visual thread to follow from first page to last.
Every bird species name in Love is set in Marcel, an elegant script typeface designed by Carolyn Porter, and which I’m very fond of using. The choice gave each bird a sense of identity beyond the illustration alone. It also led to an unplanned meeting: when I told Heather that Carolyn lived locally, she sought her out—one craftsperson recognizing another’s work in print, brought together by a small design decision.
However, Marcel didn’t really sit right in the Hope book. As much as I would have liked to use the same, the tone of Hope was more joyful, more open, and called for a different type treatment. It was also the case that Marcel’s capital-L worked wonders, but its capital-H was more restrained.
Just some of the fine-tuned details that go into every well-crafted design!
