Childrens Book Illustrator - Design Refresh Existing Book

Two Castles — Illustrator Brief Two Castles: A Chess Story for Toddlers — a picture book that teaches ages 2–5 the names and starting positions of chess pieces through a story about a kingdom. Published 2023, now being redesigned. Currently available on Amazon. We are refining, not reinventing. Story, text, page count, trim size and page layout are all locked. What we're buying is a new look for the characters and the colour. Phase 1 — paid concept work Before committing to the full book, we're paying for concepts so we can choose a direction against real artwork. Per direction, deliver: Front cover — finished, plus a 160px-tall export Spread 3 — the bishop spread, full 17 × 11 canvas at 300 DPI, finished to print standard The piece overview page — new to this edition, spec in "New pages" below Cover both directions. Both must use the same spread. Finished work only — mood boards can't answer the questions we need answered. The two directions: B — Flat and graphic. Confident flat shapes, restrained palette, strong figure/ground separation designed in from the start. The most contemporary read, and the best contrast ceiling. C — Textured storybook. Gouache, crayon or textured-flat rendering. Visible mark-making, softer palette, more atmosphere. Warmest and most distinctive on a shelf. Neither uses arms (see below). Push each one properly — two directions that look alike are a wasted exercise. Propose a third if you think it's genuinely stronger, but cover both of these. Phase 2 is the remaining eight spreads plus back matter. Whoever wins Phase 1 gets first refusal. The rules Colour Two army colours only — a warm cream and a deep navy. Never one colour per piece type. The story ends with a second, identical kingdom, so colour has to mean side. Every piece must reach at least 4.5:1 contrast against what's behind it. The current book measures 1.96:1 — near-white pieces on mid-green grass. Fix it in the background, not by recolouring pieces. Test in greyscale. If it holds there, the shapes are working. The pieces Must pass a flat-black silhouette test. A child should be able to match your drawing to a real Staunton set. The identifying feature always beats the face in visual prominence — rook crenellations, knight profile, bishop mitre, queen coronet, king cross. If a child remembers "the smiley one," we've taught nothing useful. Faces small, low on the body. Two dark eyes with a small highlight, minimal mouth. Identical eye size and outline weight on every piece, regardless of piece height. True relative heights: pawn shortest, king tallest. Arms — none The pieces have no arms or hands. Real chess pieces don't have them, they break the silhouette, and the face alone carries plenty of character. Convey gesture and relationship through tilt, clustering, scale and eye direction instead — a piece leaning toward another reads as "talking to" more charmingly than a wave, and it survives at thumbnail size where arms don't. The current edition has arms and spidery multi-finger hands. Both go. Composition Art runs continuously across the gutter. Keep faces, eyes and coordinate labels out of the 0.375" band either side of the split. Deliver the full canvas as one file — we'll split it. No text crosses the gutter. Reserve calm, high-contrast areas for type on both halves. Don't set type. Cut the decorative clutter — scattered flowers, sparkles, butterflies. That's the real visual noise, not the colour. Balance the two halves. Several current spreads load one side and leave the other empty. Board coordinates (A–H, 1–8) stay, but quieter and cleaner — subordinate to the pieces, not competing. Piece placements are chess-accurate and must stay that way. Cover Design it at 160px tall first, then scale up. If the title isn't readable and the pieces don't read as chess pieces at that size, it's failed — that's where the book is actually bought. New pages in this edition Two pages are being added. They replace two existing pages that currently reprise earlier artwork with no text. 1. Piece overview page A reference chart showing all six pieces. This is the page a parent will screenshot, and it's the book's clearest differentiator — so it needs to be right. Six cells: pawn, rook, knight, bishop, queen, king. Two columns by three rows. Every piece in the same army colour. Shape is the only variable. This is the page where a child learns to tell the pieces apart, so nothing else may compete. Colour variety comes from the card backgrounds only — soft pale tints behind each piece. True relative heights across the whole grid, so the size progression from pawn to king is visible at a glance. Piece name below each, in heavy rounded uppercase. Every label the same dark colour — don't colour-match labels to their cards, or colour starts meaning piece type again. No arms. No background scenery, flora or decoration. Nothing on the page but the six cells and their labels. Optional if it doesn't crowd: a small board icon in each cell showing where that piece starts. 2. Story and teaching page A short page for the adult reader explaining what the book teaches and how to use it. Placed at the back. Primarily typographic — copy will be supplied and set separately. From you we need a small vignette illustration and any framing element, plus a reserved layout that keeps the page calm and readable. Do not design this as a busy page. Levy Rozman, Ten Speed 2026 — https://www.amazon.com/dp/0593837835 Take: its graphic confidence, flat decisive shapes, high contrast built in from the start, and restraint. Don't take: its piece rendering. It abstracts pieces into graphic forms for infant vision. Ours are characters with faces and personality, and that's what our readers respond to. Also ignore its instructional register — we teach names and placement only, not how pieces move. Specs Trim 8.5 × 11 portrait, 24 pages New pages 2 — piece overview, story/teaching page (replacing two existing filler pages) Canvas 17 × 11 in at 300 DPI (5100 × 3300 px) per spread Bleed 0.125" all sides · gutter safe margin 0.375" Colour sRGB, ICC profile embedded Print Amazon KDP, premium colour Source files — non-negotiable The 2023 edition was delivered as flattened JPGs. No vector, no layers. Nothing can be recoloured, rescaled or reused without repainting. We are not repeating that. Final delivery must include: Layered vector source (.ai or .svg), organised and named Isolated character library — each piece as an independent reusable asset, both army colours, arms and hands as fixed components if used Separated background library — sky, grass, treeline, board as components Title wordmark as vector plus transparent PNG Print exports at 300 DPI (nothing above it — one current file was delivered at 1250 DPI) Rights Full copyright assignment to Two Castles LLC, covering print, digital, merchandise, marketing and derivative works including a sequel. Illustrator credited on the title and copyright pages. Warranty of originality — no stock, AI-generated or unlicensed assets without disclosure. Concept artwork stays yours unless purchased. If we proceed to Phase 2 with you, the winning concepts convert to full assignment and your concept fee is credited against the Phase 2 fee. Process Kickoff — full asset archive supplied Character sheet — six pieces, both armies, silhouette test, contrast-tested. Approval gate. The character sheet doubles as the basis for the piece overview page, so get it right here. Concepts — cover, Spread 3, and piece overview page, per direction. Selection. Phase 2 — remaining spreads plus the story/teaching page vignette, in two batches Delivery — all source files, signed handover Screening questions Picture-book work for ages 2–5, printed rather than screen-only? Do you work vector-native and deliver layered source? How do you handle artwork running across the gutter of a perfect-bound book? After looking at the reference title: what would you take from it, and where would you diverge? Any issue with full copyright assignment? Supplied on kickoff: full artwork archive (13 spreads at 5100 × 3300, title wordmark as transparent PNG), InDesign layouts, current typefaces, exact text-box dimensions. No vector source exists — assume you're rebuilding, not editing. Timeline: concepts due [X] weeks from kickoff. Decision within one week. Phase 2 starts immediately on selection. Quote: flat fee per concept direction, and an estimated range for Phase 2. Attached are directional examples of piece redesign.