Background
In the summer of 2023, I undertook an enjoyable project called “Tales of Kindness and Magic.” It was a fun experiment where I explored ChatGPT, created vibrant illustrations, and gained new insights, as I attempted to create a children’s book.
Spark of Inspiration
Inspiration struck at my professional job, when I collaborated with one of my favorite clients, who are dedicated to ensuring foster children have safe homes. My tasks usually have me review and update their website for SEO, meaning I spend a lot of time going through their materials.
This client also sold games and books about feelings, inspiring me to unleash my creativity and attempt to make something completely out of my comfort zone; a children’s book. This seemed like a perfect opportunity to experiment with ChatGPT for a different purpose. And to let my creativity run free, and see what I would come up with, when I had no constraints.
ChatGPT
The basic idea for the book comes from principles of being a good friend, thinking this could be a universal topic with a broad set of topics that could be relevant. My co-writer on this project was ChatGPT, I wanted to see how, by using different queries, and segmenting the text, I’d be able to create a story that could work for young children.
Throughout this process I research on children’s reading materials and consulted parent friends to ensure the story’s effectiveness for young readers. As I learned, children require something that is also necessary in UX copyu; keeping chapters and sentences short while using colorful images to enhance the storytelling.
Cheerful Illustrations
Knowing I would need a large volume of illustrations, I utilized Freepix as a source for materials. It was a lot of fun going through cheerful illustrations of landscapes and happy children, and then customizing each in Adobe Illustrator, to ensure they all would fit in cohesively together. The assets I ended up using couldn’t be used commercially, which didn’t matter since the project was a small personal endeavor.
Reflections
On this project I really went out of my shell, and tried to put myself into a mindset of a children’s book writer and illustrator, something which I have never done before. It was fun, the absence of boundaries and deadlines made it an enjoyable and educational experience, opening my mind to a variety of style and design questions to experiment with.
While the book remains unfinished, I may refine the text, update the illustrations, and create a personal copy in the future. It stands as another diverse project of which I am proud, knowing that my skill set allows me to pick up a variety of different projects, for different audiences, using different platforms, and bring something to life.
