Book Layout & Design

We were asked to design new book layout for a previously published children's picture book, Malala Yousafzai: Warrior with Words. The new publisher, Lee & Low Books, wanted to resize the book, from a square (8.5 x 8.5), to a vertical format (8.38 x 9.63). This meant new a layout and design and Photoshop manipulation of the illustrations to fit the new format. It was important that the retouched illustrations kept the paper textures in the collaged artwork. We used layers of textures copied from the scanned artwork, adding a slight drop shadow to for dimension.

The cover illustration was constructed in Photoshop by combining an interior portrait of Malala and an illustration of children with books. We made the background of the type layer with paper we found and scanned for the project. By shifting the background color with Photoshop Adjustment Layers we were able to give the editor and author optional color combinations to choose from.

This title was published in English and Spanish, there is a hardcover and a paperback edition in each language.