Listen up for the fable of a kids’ storytelling app that aced at Kickstarter and ended up as a charming book to enjoy with the kids during lockdown.

The delightful The Future is Make Believe was designed by Manchester-based studio Fieldwork, the creative duo of Andy Gott and illustrator Loz Ives, whose iPad art tips by the latter we’ve featured before on the site.

Having designed and built the website, which allows youngsters to create their own stories online, Fieldwork collaborated closely once again with Fabled’s founder, Laura Hamm, to transform the app into print.

With a minimal design, the concept is simple and allows the children’s stories to breathe. “We had to resist a natural urge to complicate and get distracted by the endless other things that a book like this might be able to do,” says Fieldwork co-founder, Andy Gott. “The concept is simple and celebrates the awe-inspiring stories that young children tell every day.”

Illustrations were produced collaboratively by Loz Ives and Manchester designer and illustrator, Jane Bowyer.

Loz says: “This was unlike any other illustration brief we’d had before—the subject matter was sometimes completely bonkers, and lots of fun to work with.”

Jane Bowyer adds: “Working with Loz took me back to a time when I use to do a lot more drawing by hand so I saw glimpses of my old style coming through. I feel like we both learned new ways of working by working together.”

To find out more about Fabled’s The Future is Make Believe, visit www.madebyfieldwork.com

You can listen to Loz Ives being interviewed on the Creative Boom podcast here.

Related: How leading illustrators like Loz use the iPad

https://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/news/printing/kid-written-stories-come-life-in-popping-new-book/