Hami's Journey Home

children's book children illustration storybook book cover ILLUSTRATION Character design digital illustration Drawing storybook illustration

Hardcover print of final product.

HAMI'S JOURNEY HOME

| Independent children's book project | Target Age 5-8 | 40 pages |

Written by Christine J.Lee Illustrated by Seyoung Jang

Adobe Photoshop, Clip Studio Paint, Adobe Indesign

Additional website layout image.

This book is inspired by the real-life events of our writer Christine's grandparent's escape from North Korea during the Korean War. Christine wanted to record and spread her grandparent's journey, so she decided to make a big jump and write a children's story.

This decision naturally led her to search for an artist who could visualize her stories while holding a deep understanding of Korean culture. Through many days of discussions, we both knew we were the perfect duo to start this project.

1. Writing & Research

Initial cover page of the script that was shared for discussing major art direction, design, layout, & historical research.

Historical research of the Korean War & Commercial marketing research on children's book in South Korea

2. Book Illustration

Art Direction, Character Design, Color Design, Layout & Editorial Design, Printing etc

Rough idea sketches that was submitted in the early stage of production to capture the mood,

character and props that would reflect the narrative.

Art direction exploration, we later narrowed down to a style that focuses more on line and paper texture.

Finalized Character design and art style of the project.

We wanted to make sure the art reflects the essence of a' home' while not giving a old, worn out vintage look.

Part of rejected, unused Layout colorscript. We wanted to make sure to keep a consistent warm tone. When depicting conflicts or historical events, we wanted to make sure the colors do not overwhelming our younger audience.