MinaLima’s Incredible Designs

Many of us will covet a MinaLima book with its clever illustrations and design features. We are so lucky to have this piece from the creative team, Miraphora and Eduardo, sharing some of their insights into creating their books.

Miraphora: We love magical worlds and believe that there is no better way to escape in them than to delve into classic tales. But giving these stories the MinaLima treatment is a big responsibility, as these are much-loved stories which have stood the test of time and have been passed down from generation to generation. So, we try to approach them with new eyes and give them a completely new look. Reading our MinaLima Classics should be an immersive experience for the reader, both visually and tangibly. We tend not to follow modern trends, instead paying homage to old ephemera and vintage books – so classic tales suit us.

Eduardo: Our process of designing a book starts with reading it thoroughly again and making, what we call, a book map. This consists of marking all the interesting, quirky and intriguing elements of the story. We then decide whether these events would be presented as full-scale large illustrations or small spot illustrations, interactive elements or fold-out elements. At this point, an overall creative direction is forming in our minds and Mira starts putting this to paper by roughly sketching the characters and locations. We have a fantastic team, who then picks these up and starts drawing the illustrations in more detail.

Miraphora: Our team also begins crafting all the paper engineered interactive elements, cutting and pasting different sections to see if they work. It is quite a technical process and can come with its own challenges, like ensuring that the colour illustrations and interactives are evenly spread out through the book. But it is worth the effort because these interactive inserts are great mechanisms for building a relationship between the characters and the readers. Besides, it is always rewarding to then see the final book. And as we have created the book covers of all our Classics in a similar design language, they can all sit happily together on a shelf.

Eduardo: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is our eighth book in the MinaLima Classics collection and is actually Mira’s favourite! It is such a staple of children’s literature that we couldn’t resist illustrating it as well. It’s a beautiful tale of friendship and a great story to read during the Christmas holidays.

Miraphora: Actually, when I was younger, I would always watch The Wizard of Oz at Christmas; it is a very special story. Dorothy and MinaLima share a sense of adventure, so we wanted to ignite the readers’ imaginations through the illustrations and bring a sense of play to reading through the interactive elements.

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