{"id":1676,"date":"2015-01-28T11:10:28","date_gmt":"2015-01-28T11:10:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.florisbooks.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1676"},"modified":"2015-01-28T13:36:53","modified_gmt":"2015-01-28T13:36:53","slug":"the-floris-books-picture-book-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.florisbooks.co.uk\/blog\/2015\/01\/28\/the-floris-books-picture-book-process\/","title":{"rendered":"The Floris Books Picture Book Process"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once upon a time, a writer wrote a story and a publishing house decided that it was so fantastic, they wanted to share it with the rest of the world. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cThis story will delight children so much more if it is illustrated!\u201d the writer said.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cWe agree,\u201d said the publisher, \u201cwe\u2019ll get our best Designers on it at once!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

And that\u2019s where I come in; my name is Leah and I\u2019m the Designer at Floris Books. It\u2019s my job to make our picture books as brilliant as possible, and the best way to do that is to work alongside an equally brilliant illustrator! There\u2019s much more to creating a picture book than meets the eye. An illustrator works hard with an author to make a picture book look wonderful, and they both bring unique talents. A recent article in The Bookseller<\/a> highlighted how we should recognise their role so much more. Floris Design wholeheartedly supports this idea, so this week they asked me to reveal all about how we work with illustrators to create beautiful books. Come with me on a journey through The Tale of Tam Linn<\/em><\/a> by Lari Don and Philip Longson!<\/p>\n

\"DonTale<\/a><\/p>\n

1. Illustrator search and commission<\/strong><\/p>\n

The whole process begins for me when an enthusiastic Editor appears at my desk and hands me a finished manuscript for a picture book. It\u2019s my job to find the perfect picture partner for the story, so I read it carefully to get a feeling for the sort of tale it is.<\/p>\n

If it\u2019s a funny story it would require quirky, lively illustrations like those by Kate McLelland<\/a> in There Was a Wee Lassie Who Swallowed a Midgie<\/em>:\"Quirky<\/a><\/p>\n

If it\u2019s a grand tale it would call for beautiful and earnest artwork like that by Matthew Land<\/a> in The Dragon Stoorworm<\/a><\/em>:\"Earnest<\/a><\/p>\n

If it\u2019s a dark tale it would demand an atmospheric and dramatic interpretation. The latter is what I immediately thought when Lari Don\u2019s The Tale of Tam Linn<\/em><\/a> appeared on my desk. It\u2019s a modern adaptation of the dark Scottish folk tale involving a young girl, an evil fairy queen and a kidnapped boy.<\/p>\n

Now that I knew what kind of feeling the illustrations had to invoke, I had to find the right illustrator. I have various ways of finding illustrators for new projects:<\/p>\n