My husband and I can spend hours in the children's department at our local bookstore. Not because we have kids (unless the kind with 4 legs counts), but because we love thumbing back through the books that stole our imaginations as children. It fascinates us to see that what we read before we even went to school, has played a major part in making us who we are today. See which kids books inspired my personal design sense and tell us about yours after the jump...
Children's Books That Impacted Your Design Sense
Kids books are funny things. If your household was like mine, my brother and I would pick out a few for our parents to read to us each night before bed. We read the same stories over and over again knowing what happened before we even got to the next page. We knew the illustrations inside and out as if we were part of the book. The alligator doll in A Bargain For Francis could have actually been real in our 6 year old brains. And the loose tooth in One Morning In Maine was so real, we could actually taste the warm blood in our mouth.
Having the chance to flip back through some of our old favorites, I catch myself being drawn to things in the design world that relate back to many of the books I read as a child. Art styles ranged from intricate pen and ink work to beautifully painted spreads as my mother was always sure to have books in our house that would really stretch our minds. Let's examine some of my favorites:
The Color Kittens helps to explain my love of bold solid shapes. There are no black borders around any of the art and some of it feels to have a brush stroke to it. Almost as if your water color brush sat on the paper too long before picking it up. There are still colors to this day that I say are "Color Kittens Purple." Which sounds just as ridiculous as calling a color "Deep Blushing Eggplant" so I'm kind of ok with it.
Robert McCloskey is by far one of my favorite children's book authors/illustrators. The pen and ink work in his illustrations are breathtaking and I am sure they captivated more minds than just my own. The deceptively simple inking allowed a story to be told in great detail without feeling heavy on the page. Which I would like to think is how many of the rooms in my house are designed. We want them to feel warm and very "us" without feeling weighed down by furniture and accessories.
Cross Country Cat along with the other books about Henry the Ca, really hit home when I was younger. I am sure it was because I had a cat, and I was positive she could actually perform the things that he did in this story. Henry is a real member of the family and the stories are always written with that in mind.
The colors don't always stay consistent as you flip through the book, but the textures do. It helps me to remember that I don't always have to have my rooms match, or even coordinate. But as long as the design carries you from one room to the next, things will always turn out ok.
Ferdinand was a simple book although it had depth and complex words. It never seemed heavy due to the clean ink work that the entire book was done in. The line weight, or variance of line thickness, conveyed emotion without needing color to make it's point. This helps me to remember that clean lines and different textures of the same neutral color have a great impact when used correctly.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs was over the top. The inking was sharp and the colors saturated the page as visions of donuts and pizza danced in your brain. This book represents the side of me that believes that more is more and I want to bring everything I own into a space (even if it's not always practical).
Mike Mulligan captured my heart like none other. I was a tom girl at heart (still am), and the industrial nature of this book appealed to me just as much as the soft color palette did. As you read through this book, it is without the hard outlines you so often find in other books. Colors blend effortlessly and move your eye around the page. Modern furniture and design often times feels cold and hard. Remembering to melt your colors together with textures was a great lesson learned.
Ping. Oh Ping. You stole all of our hearts and captured our minds. Ping mixed a wide variety of colors, but texture blended them as if they were born to go together. Many times we struggle with narrowing down the color choices we bring into our rooms. Ping is a great example on how to utilize many colors without having it distract from the story your room is trying to tell.
Horton Hears A Who was a favorite of many. It has hard cartoon outlines and bright bold colors. The inking is flawless and moves your eye across the page as it line weight varies. It might feel garish compared to the color palettes of the other books, but the large amounts of white/negative space keep the brightness of the bold colors in balance. This helps keep things in proportion in my own house as I remember that white is not only a color, but the absence of it. Sometimes it's best to not add that one last pillow...
So next time you are out and about and find yourself hunting for a new book to read, maybe check out an old one and see what you learned from it.
Do you remember a book you read as a child like it was yesterday? Tell us about it!
Photos by: Color Kittens, One Morning in Maine, A Bargain for Francis, Cross Country Cat, Blueberries For Sal, Ferdinand, Mike Mulligan, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, The Story of Ping, Horton Hears a Who
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Our baby's nursery will be done in colors inspired by Blueberries for Sal; dark gold and navy with framed illustrations from the book on the walls. This post is so funny as we also just purchased Mike Mulligan, The Story of Ping and Ferdinand for the nursery library.
view manicmaven's profile
Where the Wild Things Are is certainly one of the most memorable books from my childhood. All the detail! All the lines!
Another series that really influenced me as a kid (oh boy, this is going to date me to a particularly embarrassing decade) was the Serendipity books - total hippie books for kids with incredible watercolor and pencil art, and bright colors that were so mindblowing to a poor kid in the 80s - all the books I owned were 60s and 70s hand-me-downs so I was used to seeing one or two-color block prints in books. These books, with their pinks and purples and unicorns and foggy quiet islands just sucked me in - this one in particular: http://www.amazon.com/Misty-Morgan-Serendipity-Stephen-Cosgrove/dp/0843138238/ref=pd_sim_b_3
I'm so embarrassed, but what can I say? They were really amazing to me at the time.
view melanie's profile
"Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs" is one of my all-time favorite books. SO GOOD, and such a good lesson in moderation without being annoying and preachy.
"Goodnight, Moon" also has a really distinct sensibility: a saturated color palette and crisp shapes.
view meg_ues's profile
OMG Serendipity books were the best!!! I think I had all of them!
view Seaside's profile
Ferdinand is one of the few perfect books out there.
Baby's House (Mary Blair) caught my imagination when I was little (it was the colors, I think), and still makes me catch my breath: http://www.animationarchive.org/2008/06/golden-book-mary-blairs-babys-house.html
view Joan A.'s profile
Eloise, with illustrations by Hilary Knight, surely provided inspiration for my pink office. What a hotel!
view liseah's profile
"My Father's Dragon" series - awesome cover illustrations!
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n10/n54594.jpg
http://images.syndetics.com/hw7.pl?client=depup&isbn=0679889116/LC.JPG
http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/14590000/14597449.JPG
view spleenhg's profile
I have to third Ferdinand. Never has there been a better kid's book, both for the story and the illustrations. They are beautiful.
I didn't know Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs was that widely read! I loved this book, too.
The original version of some of the Madeline books - Madeline's Rescue in particular - are so very minimal - only a few lines convey the scenes so graphically. http://www.amazon.com/Madelines-Rescue-Ludwig-Bemelmans/dp/0140566511/ref=si3_rdr_bb_product
view brenjay's profile
Blueberries for Sal was one of my very favorite books when I was a kid! As far as design style, I think I'm a little more along the lines of Eric Carle's "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" - lots of colors and mixing of patterns and textures!
view colellis's profile
I always liked The Little House, by the same author and illustrator as Mike Mulligan. It's about a little house that gets abandoned and neglected as a big city grows up around it, until it gets moved out to the country. Anti-surburban-sprawl sticklers might hate it, though.
view Shawn's profile
Jesus... ~35 years later I can still remember lines from some of these.
And in all that brown
the sun went down...
(I loved the color kittens)
view ChzPlz's profile
Fairy Tales by e.e. cummings, illustrated by John Eaton. I loved the whimsical watercolors. Especially the ones for The Elephant and the Butterfly. The lines in those drawings are still stuck in my head after 20 years.
view hessilou's profile
The moomin series were the ones I remember admiring the most. The stories are incredibly sweet, but it's the illustrations that blew my mind completely.
This particular book has amazing die cuts
http://www.moomintrove.com/3896031562-0-detail.htm
I can look at it forever and my 3 year old son adores it too.
view aneta's profile
Growing up in germany, my bedtime stories consisted of the Brothers Grimm versions of the classic fairytales (note: they kept it bloody and gruesome even in younger childrens' version). The images were still oddly cheerful even though little red ridinghood's grandmother was inside the stomach of the wolf. LOL
I guess the only thing that could be pulled from that is that I tend to like art that causes a reaction within me and/or others, things that challenge my ideas and perceptions...enter: Dali, Picasso, Carravaggio, etc.
Saint Agatha Martyrdom by Sebastiano del Piombo
view nickel525's profile
Goodnight moon. Except now when I find a mouse peeking around corners I freak out. But I love the green walls and sense of calm.
Also Snow Day or is it Snowy Day? Vibrant.
view Elizcrtv's profile
My all time favorite book was (and still is) "The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein.....the cover was beautiful and the simplicity of the images were really breathtaking. It was hand drawn and really, really felt like it.
view JennCurrell's profile
Cloudy with a Change of Meatballs is one of my favorite kids books ever since the day the school librarian read it to us during story time in elementry school. I bought it as an adult and read it again about 2 weeks ago. My grandma first read me Ferdinand when I was a child and the story and illustrations enthralled me. I wish I could pick up a copy right now. There were these little flowers that looked (to me) like ladies curlers. Also, I love Tailypo. Has anyone read? Creepy, wonderful illustrations.
view kms102773's profile
Oh wow, so many of those were my favorites, especially the Robert McClosky ones (esp since we grew up in Maine!) and the Francis books! I remember the Mike Mulligan book too! I also loved all the children's books about witches :)
view JG's profile
The drawings in the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books from the 60s which featured mid century clothing and interiors.
Also The Snowy Day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Snowy_Day and Where the Wild Things Are http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_the_Wild_Things_Are
view peacelily's profile
The "MIFFY" books by Dick Bruna.
It started my love of orange and strong, geometric shapes.
I hunted down one a couple years ago, and it still looks just as good.
view lifesized dollhouse's profile
thank you so much for reminding me of the serendipity books. those were my absolute favorites as a kid, and i hadn't thought about them in an age! what a great memory!
view brandy's profile
I am adding to the great list of comments/books, specifically, for anyone Scandinavian or who loves 'traditional' Scandinavian influences, is the book called: CHRISTMAS IN NOISY VILLAGE, by ASTRID LINDGREN. She has many other books out, including her most popular, PIPPI LONGSTOCKING stories/books.
Alot of great 'design', clothing or otherwise, I think, comes from those books. Great colors, anyway.
However, I may be a little biased being of mostly Scandinavian heritage. Check it out anyway!
view swanygirl74's profile
No H.A. Rey? Mike Mulligan was my personal favorite overall, but I spent hours as a kid just admiring the simple and beautifully expressive illustrations of Curious George and the like.
Maurice Sendak, too. My God, the love I had for In the Night Kitchen, because of the beautiful illustrations and the dreamy urban fantasy theme.
When I buy books for my niece and nephews, I always end up tracking down reprints of these sorts of classics, largely because I remember fully well the impact that the quality of the illustrations had on me, and I want the same for them. Really, have there been any childrens' book authors in recent years who create work of such clean, elegant, soul-touching beauty?
view Hoyt Clagwell's profile
Anything by henrik drescher ( hdrescher.com )
view knoxdesigner's profile
My sister and I both adored Miss Suzy. It was so sad that she was chased out of her house by those red squirrels, but I loved that she moved into an old dollhouse. Perhaps this was an early catalyst for my appreciation of ornate, old, victorian homes.
http://www.amazon.com/Miss-Suzy-Miriam-Young/dp/1930900287
view amymac's profile
I loved Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs as a kid!
A newer book that I have been drawn to for years is "The Mixed-up Zoo of Professor Yahoo" I read it when I was baby-sitting and had to get a copy for myself. Beautiful/fun/vibrant illustrations and a truly wonderful story! I can't find a photograph of the cover anywhere...but it's a truly fantastic book.
view Shutterbug678's profile
The first (1971) edition of BrouÄci, Jan Karafiát illustrated by the famous Czech puppeteer, Jiri Trnka. It is a magical world of fireflies... and gorgeous watercolours using prints of leaves. Magical.
http://www.antikvariaty.cz/index.php?action=ShowPicture&id=46802
As well, the book Dasenka by Karel Capek (the inventor of the word "robot" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karel_ÄŒapek), which documents the life of a beloved puppy in gorgeous black and white photographs and charming line drawings
http://www.nines-international.com/zoom/3769
http://www.nines-international.com/zoom/3770
http://www.nines-international.com/zoom/3772
As well as his brother Jan Capek's books about the adventures of the cat and dog:
http://www.artbos.cz/zbozi/5543/Povidani-o-pejskovi-a-kocicce-5543.htm
http://www.galerieart.cz/capek_vystava_1927_1932.htm
view mschatelaine's profile
MIKE MULLIGAN!!!! THE STEAM SHOVEL! :D I now want to go find a copy for my nephews!
view venus_thames's profile
I, too, loved "The Little House". I had not seen a copy of it for many (30) years when I found it at a school sale. Looking at it now I am sure it influenced me greatly. I still look at abandoned homes and want someone to move in and fix them!
view whitexb's profile
Anything by Jill Murphy!
She did the Worst Witch-http://www.amazon.com/Worst-Witch-Young-Puffin-Story/dp/0141314508/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1222206218&sr=1-1
The Large Family Stories- http://www.amazon.com/All-One-Piece-Jill-Murphy/dp/1844285340/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1222205972&sr=1-2
and Piece at Last- http://www.amazon.com/Peace-Last-Puffin-Pied-Piper/dp/0140546855/ref=pd_sim_b_4
its a lil off topic but i read all these as a kid and would love to have them again to pass on to my own.
view zhenpoo's profile