Sharing illustration inspiration for kids young & old!

I am such a big fan of these kids apps by KAPU and so is my son. In KAPU Forest you have to complete a gestural task with a host of furry friends to get to the next scene and KAPU Camera is an adorable app that teaches your child how to use your iphone or ipad camera safely. Both are good for babies right through to toddlers and school aged children. Not only are they really intuitive and fun to play but the illustrations for each little character by New Zealand based illustrator Brett King, are adorable. I had a chance to ask Frederique Vermaete, one of the founders of KAPU, a few questions about their process and illustration style…

1) Do you do all the illustration in-house or did you hire an illustrator to come in and work with you?

Yeah we do illustration in house. In fact our head illustrator is Brett King from New Zealand.

2) How big is the Kapu team?

The Kapu team is 5; 3 from Finland, 1 from New Zealand and myself am from Belgium. We all have our backgrounds in design and marketing, and started at the same time.

3) Did you do much exploration into what style of illustration you wanted to go with and if so, why did you end up going in this direction?

It has always been important for us to feel authentic but also offer something calming. Another reason for us to adopt this style is to offer a peaceful yet thorough designed environment for kids to explore the digital space. In addition each toy is also dedicated to bringing generations together with games and characters everyone will love with inspiration for artwork and music coming from 1950′s children’s books for the artwork and 1960′s cool jazz movement for the music.

4) Are there any more apps planned for the future?

Definitely! We’re currently working to launch our next app this Christmas.

Thanks to KAPU for all the great answers and images! Pick up your own copy of the app on itunes today (no really, it just launched today)!

Stumbled upon a great initiative called Help Ink that gets artists and designers to donate their work and then gives the proceeds to charity.

From their site:
“Help Ink is a collaborative project, using the sale of premium and exclusive art to help charities in an exciting way.”

They have all kinds of illustration and design including some great illustration for kids like this great poster by Meg Hunt. It’s part of a series that will be available in the kids section of Fab.com along with more prints by contributors like Tad Carpenter and Jessica Hische.

From Meg Hunt:
“I got to design a three-color kid-friendly print based on a Confucius quote. So I opted to go with adventure, maps, and a little dachshund with a backpack. Fun!”

Can’t wait to see what everyone else comes up with!

Behold! The amazing illustration work of Brighton based illustrator, Jessie Ford! I wish she would do more alphabets because this one is amazing. All the work on her website is also available as prints and would make amazing nursery decor.

I’ve been storing these amazing children’s bookcovers by Chris Silas Neal away for a rainy day. I love the mix of type and illustration and he has a great eye for colour. It’s also great to get a peek at his process in the image on his homepage and Process page. Check out his website for other great work for clients like Kate Spade (!). He also has an interesting range of original artwork for sale in his store.

Big thanks to Matt Kaufenberg for showing me the amazing work of Troy Cummings! He has too many cool projects on his site to share so you should definitely go over there and check them out for yourself. Not only does he do editorial work but he has a few kids books under belt and 3 apps. All with amazing children’s illustration. His latest is a storybook with a twist about the eensy weensy spider. He made a great video to promote the book that is worth a watch too. So basically there’s nothing he can’t do.