Design Books (and More) for Kids

From AMMO Books. The Alexander Girard: Color board book celebrates the vivid, playful, and sophisticated world of 20th century design icon Alexander Girard. Especially known for his textile designs for Herman Miller, Girard’s wide-ranging repertoire also spanned many disciplines, including interior design, graphic design, and furniture design. This chunky board book is another wonderful addition to our series that features both design greats and up-and-coming new talent. Alexander Girard Color features the vintage 1972 illustration “Girls” on the cover, as well as 26 classic Girard designs.

From Phaidon Press. Architecture According to Pigeons is a fun, lively introduction for children to world's most beautiful buildings. In this delightful book, Speck Lee Tailfeather reveals that he and his fellow pigeons are in fact great aficionados of architecture. Speck delivers his account of a journey around the globe, offering a “bird’s eye view” of the Colosseum, the Taj Mahal, Golden Gate Bridge, the Sydney Opera House, the Eiffel Tower, Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater, and dozens of other buildings to delight children and parents alike.

From AMMO Books. Books! by Murray McCain and John Alcorn, the beloved classic children's book originally published in 1962, is now re-released for the first time in a new large format. This 1962 New York Times book of the year is beloved for its charming hand-drawn illustrations, inventive typography, and sweet homage to the very nature of books themselves. The author and illustrator celebrate the importance of books in our everyday lives, through words and graphics that are all beautifully designed and printed with fluorescent inks. This sweet and nostalgic book shares the wonder of language, stories, and imagination that young children can discover through the joy of reading. In our digital age, a treasure like Books! reminds us of how irreplaceable they truly are. This classic example of hand-drawn, mid-century graphic design is sure to find renewed interest in a new generation of young readers.

From AMMO Books. To celebrate the upcoming 40th anniversary of Charles Harper’s Birds & Words, AMMO is proud to present this large format re-issue of the 1974 classic. This exquisite edition is reproduced in its entirety with all carefully restored images. Birds & Words is the ideal book for Charley Harper fans and every bird lover who knows there is more to bird watching than measurements, range maps, flight patterns, and lifetime lists. This book is a true reflection of Charley Harper, who was that special species of man with twinkling eyes and smile, and wit as infectiously keen and lighthearted as his paintings.

From Gestalten. Christoph Niemann’s whimsical hand-drawn animals made his Petting Zoo App an international sensation. The broad range of personalities created by the famous illustrator proved to be popular with children and adults alike. Now, 36 of them can be found on the colorful cards of this memo game. The whole family will enjoy finding matches among the charming collection of characters and training their memories in such an enjoyable way.

The Petting Zoo Memo Game is not only a “must-have” for fans of Christoph Niemann’s work, but also an attractive gift for any occasion. The cards, which are made out of stable cardboard, can be easily grasped by the smallest of hands and are made to last. Combining classic educational fun with contemporary design, this memo game makes a great addition to any household.

Petting Zoo's Christoph Niemann—What's His Game? from Gestalten on Vimeo.

From Paintbox Press. Design Dossier: Architecture is the third book in a series that introduces kids ages 10+ to creative professions. This book reveals how architects work: what types of structures they create—from skyscrapers and bridges to houses and schools. Kids will discover the building blocks of architecture: materials, forces, sustainable design, planning and construction. They will learn how architects draw to scale and create prototypes; explore milestones of 20th-21st century architecture, and become familiar with ten contemporary architects who helped shape today’s built environment. Each book contains templates and instructions for building a paper skyscraper.

See all the books in the Design Dossier series for children, which includes graphic design.
 

From Workman Publishing. Go, by the award-winning graphic designer Chip Kidd, is a stunning introduction to the ways in which a designer communicates his or her ideas to the world. It’s written and designed just for those curious kids, not to mention their savvy parents, who want to learn the secret of how to make things dynamic and interesting.

Chip Kidd is “the closest thing to a rock star” in the design world (USA Today), and in Go he explains not just the elements of design, including form, line, color, scale, typography, and more, but most important, how to use those elements in creative ways. Like putting the word “go” on a stop sign, Go is all about shaking things up—and kids will love its playful spirit and belief that the world looks better when you look at it differently. He writes about scale: When a picture looks good small, don’t stop there—see how it looks when it’s really small. Or really big. He explains the difference between vertical lines and horizontal lines. The effect of cropping a picture to make it beautiful—or, cropping it even more to make it mysterious and compelling. How different colors signify different moods. The art of typography, including serifs and sans serifs, kerning and leading.

Read the Notable Book of 2013 review.

Also see our interview with Chip Kidd on Go.

From Knock Knock. This interactive picture book features whimsical mystery images hidden on each illustrated sheet. To reveal the surprise, turn out the lights and shine a flashlight behind the page or simply hold up to a light source! Best use of flashlights since shadow puppets!

From Black Dog Publishing. Following the unique illustrative style of Visual Aid: Stuff You’ve Forgotten, Things You Never Thought You Knew, and Lessons You Didn’t Quite Get Around to Learning, this book encourages children to draw and complete the pictures themselves while inviting children to get involved in the images they create and help them learn while they doodle.

From The Museum of Modern Art/Abrams. MoMA’s first storybook for kids follows the adventures of Young Frank, a resourceful young architect who lives in New York City with his grandfather, Old Frank, who is also an architect. Young Frank likes to use anything he can get his hands on—macaroni, old boxes, spoons, and sometimes even his dog, Eddie—to create wiggly chairs and twisting skyscrapers. But Old Frank doesn’t think that’s how REAL architects make things. One day they visit The Museum of Modern Art, and learn that architects can do more than either of them realized. Written by award-winning children’s author and illustrator Frank Viva, Young Frank, Architect is an inspiration for budding architects as well as those who think they’ve seen it all.