Kimmie Is…

A children’s book that encourages kids to be comfortable in their skin any day of the week.

Overview

While working with kids for several years, I grew an affinity towards children’s books and the impact they have on young minds. I was inspired to create a story based on the hundreds of books I’ve read to clients and students in my past life. This one particularly influenced me to create something interactive, ageless, and most importantly, inclusive.

Design Process

Discover, define, ideate, prototype.

Discover

I did my research on the basic structure of children’s books. I scoured resources to find a general construct and found Dave Chesson who shared a great outline that I continued following throughout my process. His 9 how-to tips helped guide my design decisions during the defining stages. I also used resources like "Don’t Push The Button” by Bill Cotter who influenced me to create a story that can be read and re-read along with other Asian American-themed books on the market.

Define

This is where I defined the structure and skeleton of the story and how it was going to be told. I decided on a format (ebook), book category (young picture book for children 2-5 years old), writing style (rhyme), and important elements I knew were imperative to me in creating this story. Here are some key components I really wanted to emphasize:

• Asian American cultural representation

• Self-confidence

• Fluidity of humans

Here are some concept ideas that were floating around:

• losing a balloon and discovering a new city trying to find it

• introducing a multi-cultural individual to different foods around the world

• what do you want to be when you grow up?

Ideate

After deciding on a basic storyline, I began ideating different versions of Kimmie (name inspired by the Asian American character in the Rugrats). I designed her to have big eyes to give it that child-like innocence.

For the final version, I created multiple facial expressions and outfits. This was to reinstate her unique personality and self-expression throughout each page.

Once I got a sense of who I would be building a world around, I started to come up with stories and text for each page. This was the storyline I followed for each illustration.

Prototype

Here are a few introductory pages!

This is still a work in progress although a working prototype of the current state can be found here. Watch for the finished product in the near future!