PENGU!N started with a very simple idea: a small, sunglasses-wearing penguin getting on with everyday life.
Home, shopping, driving, snow, the seaside, television, friends — ordinary things become slightly bigger adventures when PENGU!N is in the middle of them.
The picture-book blueprint brings those ideas together for the first time as one complete visual journey.
Small Penguin. Big Vibes.
The sixteen-scene plan begins close to home and gradually opens the world up. A bright new day leads into home life, a trip to town, the supermarket, driving, snow and a seaside holiday. Along the way PENGU!N meets friends, survives little mishaps, helps out and eventually returns to the reassuring idea that tomorrow brings another adventure.
That everyday scale is important. PENGU!N doesn’t need to save the universe every morning. Sometimes building a sandcastle, eating an ice cream or watching television is enough.
A whole book in one image
Before committing to a complete illustrated book, we built the entire idea as a miniature blueprint. Every spread can be seen at once, making it much easier to judge the pacing, recurring characters and balance between quiet scenes and bigger moments.
It also turned out to be an artwork in itself. Rather than treating the planning stage as something to hide, we’re putting it on display.
Everyday heroes
The recurring friends help make PENGU!N’s world feel larger than a collection of individual scenes. The dog, cat, robot and stranger little companions give the book the feeling of a small community — characters who can disappear for a while and then turn up again in another escapade.
That gives us somewhere to go next without having to abandon what made the character work in the first place.
PENGU!N can stay cosy, funny and slightly rough around the edges while the world around him keeps growing.
Explore more finished books and developing worlds in The Oilfuel Document Library.
Leave a Reply