The Big Little Book of Awesome Stuff
Illustration, Publication Design
2023
Popular Mechanics The Big Little Book of Awesome Stuff, written by Dan Bova and published by Hearst Home Kids, is a book jam-packed with fun projects, wild and weird facts, and incredible how-tos to help kids ages 8-12 build S.T.E.A.M. skills. The book spans six chapters — Wild Adventures, Incredible Builds, Unlock Your Superpowers, Art Attack, For the Win, and Mad Science — to offer over 300 activities and ideas.
I both illustrated and designed the entire book. The interior uses only one ink color — a warm, purple-ish navy Pantone color — that has tints to give depth to the illustrations and layering effects of the typography. The illustrations are detailed but playful and loose, like encyclopedia-style drawings for children. A collage of stickers adorn pages to give it a mixed-media, school-binder feel, combined with large-scale hand-lettering to add whimsy and humor throughout the book.
The book is available now!
The book cover is illustrated and designed for awesome-overload.
Doodles of fun facts, ideas, scenes and characters from inside the book wrap the front and back of the cover — from planets and stars (and a little UFO too) to snowboarders, Big Foot, robots and more. It gives a taste of what is inside!
One of my personal favorite design touches: the end sheets.
The end sheets use a bright gold Pantone ink to contrast with the bright blue of the cover, and the purpleish-navy of the interior one-color printing.
I used negative space illustrations on the end sheets to give a fun, flipbook-effect: on one side, a child is peeking out from behind the end sheet as a curtain (and if you look closely: a few small furry feet standing next to her). On the reverse side, the gold is inverted to draw in the back of the child, as well as reveal the puppy and small robot next to her behind the curtain.
The half-title page of the book is a fun decoder puzzle.
Two illustrated children and a dog in a classical inspector’s hat work to solve the puzzle together!
Each chapter of the book has its own icon to identify it. Throughout the book, projects are identified with difficulty-level badges — from Easy-Peasy and Get Some Help to Adult Needed.
Chapter introduction spreads are full-color dividers in the book, with tons of doodles and drawings of what you can expect to learn more about for the subject matter.
Hand-drawn illustrations and fun stickers galore!
The interior uses only one ink color — a warm, purple-ish navy Pantone color — that has tints to give depth to the illustrations and layering effects of the typography. The illustrations are detailed but playful and loose, like encyclopedia-style drawings for children. A collage of stickers adorn pages to give it a mixed-media, school-binder feel, combined with large-scale hand-lettering to add whimsy and humor throughout the book.
A guide to mythical creatures, how to teach your dog tricks, and fun facts about the Great Wall of China and the International Space Station: the book covers a huge range of content so that there’s something for everyone. It even features a section titled “From the Bad Idea Files” where we show real projects that were proposed in PM decades ago — but maybe seem like something to not try at home anymore.
