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PLANET KINDERGARTEN part 01

Not to long ago, I received a call out of the blue from Chronicle Books. They told me about a new picture book project by author Sue Ganz Schmitt that they were interested in having me illustrate. The book was titled PLANET KINDERGARTEN ,and it equated a child’s first day of kindergarten to an astronaut preparing for, and visiting, an alien world. I loved the concept as soon as I heard it, and when I read the manuscript I knew I wanted to be involved. I related directly to a character being anxious about his first day of anything, and I instantly had a slew of visual ideas inspired by the story as well. I quickly pitched my concepts to Chronicle and they liked my thinking on it all, so my mission to PLANET KINDERGARTEN was launched.


Inspired by Sues story, and working with my incredible team at Chronicle, I started researching, exploring, and planning my visual concepts VERY quickly. As I did, I made it clear to everyone involved that I do not design or create anything without first considering the story. I never have a set “style” for illustrating or designing a thing. Instead, I believe very strongly that the story should inspire, define, and drive the look of whatever I am designing. As every story should have its own identity, so should that story’s visuals.


What is the tone of the story you are designing? Where does it take place? When does it take place? Is it a frenetic/abstract concept, or is it a more naturalistic, grounded thing? Comedy? Drama? Horror? Dramedy?….etc. All of these questions, and much more, should be taken into consideration when creating the look of anything. (Ill share more on this soon).


From development to final illustrations, the entire visual process for PLANET KINDERGARTEN was quick, but a lot of fun. How do you tell a visual story about an astronaut visiting an alien planet, without literally showing an astronaut visiting an alien planet? That was both the challenge and the fun of PLANET KINDERGARTEN. To elude or make reference to themes of space travel and science fiction while still being grounded in the world we all know.


Over the next several weeks Ill share a bit about my process and experience on PLANET KINDERGARTEN while also sharing images and accounts from the many exciting events surrounding the book…such as PLANET KINDERGARTEN being chosen as the featured book (and myself the featured illustrator) of the 2014 San Francisco Public Librarys Summer Read event. Lots going on, and lots more to share.


PLANET KINDERGARTEN is now available for pre-order, and will be released May 20th 2014.

Available link for download

PLANET KINDERGARTEN part 04

PLANET KINDERGARTEN was chosen to help promote the San Francisco Public Library’s Summer Reading Program 2014! As the illustrator of the book, I was asked to create original San Francisco themed artwork that can now be seen all around the city and is being used at every library branch in SF.
From bus shelter posters, to game boards, door hangers, stickers, pencils, and even a tote bag that readers can take home with them, it’s pretty cool to be associated with a campaign that helps encourage exploration and reading throughout the summer.
Read more about the San Francisco Public Library campaign on CHRONICLE BOOKS BLOG, and stay posted for more on PLANET KINDERGARTEN.

Available link for download

PLANET KINDERGARTEN part 03

First, some fun news, PLANET KINDERGARTEN was just chosen as one of Amazons "Editors picks for Summer reading". Just one of the fun things happening with PK. Now lets nerd out. Just as the characters were inspired by the world of NASA space exploration and SCi-Fi pop culture, so were PLANET KINDERGARTENS settings. Some of the inspiration is obvious, some more subtle, but all in the goal of having the viewer feel something specific to this story, and hopefully have fun discovering fun visual elements along the way. Here are just a few examples:
Lets start with the Kindergarten school building itself (above). The text reads: “We arrive at base camp, then orbit while we look for a place to dock.” So, inspired by the text, I immediately had the idea of using the black asphalt of a parking lot as the black vastness of “SPACE” which all of the other elements would play against.
I definitely wanted to have the building feel like a space station in some way, and in researching photos of actual stations I was immediately inspired by the large rectangular panels and foils that extend out from those station’s bases.In my illustration I decided to treat the white lined parking spaces around the building as the panels/foils jutting off of a station. The family car/craft, while not being a literal space ship, is colored with the same black and white pallet that a NASA space shuttle displays.

When mom and dad drop off their brave explorer (above), mom incorporates a heart felt Vulcan gesture into her goodbye wave.

I wanted to create some sense of a Martian, or alien landscape when we entered the classroom with our main character. Stacks of red, classroom blocks did the trick.

When I was a young student, I remember several of my classrooms being decorated with various paper stars. Sometimes student’s names would be written on them, often hanging from the ceiling, sometimes stapled to the walls, but all were the inspiration for the star motif you see throughout PLANET KINDERGARTEN.

I introduced you to the character of ROB in my last post, but he was not the only thing inspired by the world of robotics. These lunch room receptacles were inspired by the Star Wars Gonk Droids, as well as the robot from the little known 1980s children’s television series “Whitney and the Robot”.

Riffing off the “black asphalt as space” concept once again, I thought that when incorporating bits of recess symbolism we might get a kind of subliminal solar system visual. Complete with Milky Way.

The “Nap Time” section of the book was one of the first areas I had a clear “space” concept for. I remember my elementary school nap time fondly. I had a black mat that I would lie down on as we listened to the class record player project Burl Ives “Little Black Duck” into the darkness. When delving into the imagery for the book, I chose a down shot on our character lying on a black mat with a couple classroom objects scattered about him to help create the effect that our little “astronaut” is floating in space.
These are just a few more of the concepts and elements I had the pleasure of playing with while creating the visual language of PLANET KINDERGARTEN. Lots more happening with Planet Kindergarten, so stay posted.

Available link for download