Hide & Eek - Picture Book

This simple picture book has come about by the discovery of some old Victorian tricks. As magpies of anything that catches our eye, Jim Sutherland and I thought the show-through aspect of using paper and light could be used very successfully in a modern context. There are many things we can't see into for obvious reasons and we thought it would be nice to imagine what they might look like. When we had about twelve clear ideas sketched in I began to research a possible style for the project by collecting together some simple graphic references and placing them, scrapbook style, into a folder. 

It was very much on the shelf for years. So long-story short, one day it was pitched to Jen Bilik at Knock Knock and soon the folder came down from the shelf and was being rekindled and rapidly developed.

Under the sea

Old man's beard

Ringmaster and lion

Torch monster

Without revealing too much of the magic, the images inside the pages can only be seen when torch (or flash) light is shined through the paper. This makes it an excellent discovery book for children of all ages, hopefully under the bedclothes at night.

All sorts of titles were originally thrown around, including See-Saw, Hide & Seek, Hide & Peek until the name Hide & Eek appeared from a hat-trick and Knock Knock brainstorming session. It suggests the secretive nature of the book along with anticipation.

Here is Knock Knock's publicity trailer for the book:




I'm completely surprised that we ended up with 3 files stuffed with ideas and reference. Here's a small selection of their contents.

Bruno Munari reference

Some early ideas and experiments

Cogs and colour thoughts

Some of Jim Sutherland's sketches

I'm very thankful for Hat-trick's art direction and powers of graphic wondrousness - in particular Laura Bowman. And I'm extremely grateful to Knock Knock, way over in Venice Beach, California, for having such a huge amount of enthusiasm and input to the project. What wonderful collaborators they are to have as publishers.

The book is out in US now, and the UK in the Autumn, but can be purchased wherever you are from the Knock Knock website here. 

Press: .designweek,  Indaba,  Creative Review, Design Taxi,  Fast Company, It's Nice That