Children's 7
Note: The following is an excerpt from an email we received on 17 December 2024:
I hope you are both excellent and had an amazing 2024!
JJ Learns Jiu Jitsu has been on fire and impacting both kids and parents in a big way. I never imagined this book would have the impact it is having. We sold through about 1,800 books and the other 3,200 should be gone by 1/31/2025.
My big goal here is to have this book in the hands of ONE MILLION kids and parents. This is a good starting point. We are in the process of building a team to make this happen.
Note: This testimonial was offered upon our first completing Matt's book around December 16, 2024:
Darlene and Dan were absolutely excellent to work with. From day one, they walked me through the process of how they would lay out and design my book including the cover. They were very patient with me as I had many questions about the process. They were always very responsive and offered advice to make sure I received a professional looking book. They also helped streamline the process to get the design files to my printer to get the book to print. I would highly recommend them to anyone.
—Matt Shoup, author, JJ Learns Jiujitsu
Though Larry Jon Davis' art for this book was very beautiful, there was a bit of a challenge for us to fit it on the cover—no fault of Larry's. His single illustration needed to span front and back covers, with parts of the hoop showing on each. However, the four boys on the left were positioned too far to the right in the original. The boy in the yellow shirt stood directly under the hoop, and would have wrapped around the spine. The random texture of the court surface presented a bit of a challenge to fill in the blank spots where the boys once stood. But Adobe Systems came to the rescue with a new feature of Photoshop called "AI [for Artificial Intelliigence] generative fill", which was able to automatically generate the randomness of the court surface to fill the gaps seamlessly and quickly.
"Darlene Swanson is excellent at her craft. Not only is she great at what she does but she is incredibly easy to work with. Having worked with her on three books, I feel as if she is a part of my team. She cares deeply about making sure that the final product is of the best quality and she works hard to make sure she accomplishes this goal. I would highly recommend her services to anyone who “wants the job done right.”
—Dr. Doris Brown (for Dr. Donald Cole's book, Becoming AOK)
Couldn’t be happier with Darlene’s work. She made everything seamless and was cheerfully patient with all of our changes—some major and many tiny as we sought perfection. Highly recommend.
—David Grote, author
The author also had us create bookmarks and a bird-sighting checklist to accompany the book.
Designing a children’s picture book takes imagination and appreciation for young readers’ sensibilities. Darlene employed both of these talents as she designed my book Birds at the Beach and Beyond for children up to age 7. Her rapid responses to questions and comments made this remote project partnership easy and efficient. Darlene was amenable to conversations about point sizes, illustration positions, font colors, and other small details that added to the books’s quality in substantial but subtle ways. Dan shares the same abilities, as he worked on the book’s cover. He noted that the bird on the front cover looked as if he were opening his beak to nip one of the letters in the title. This is a design element that delights a child—and makes me happy as an author who is relying on the artistic talents of others. I wholeheartedly recommend Darlene and Dan to other authors searching for designers with extensive experience and sensitivity to a book’s audience. I look forward to working with them again.
—Lisa Donovan, author, Birds at the Beach and Beyond
Wow x 1000!!! My second time hiring Van-Garde Imagery, Inc., and I am ECSTATIC by the exquisite and spot-on design of my second children's book- part of a twelve-book series.
At the outset, I had an ideal image of what the book would look like. Darlene and Dan's excellent craftsmanship, attention to detail, and artistic sensibilities produced a product that far exceeded my highest hopes.
In 2021 during my first outing as a self-published author, there was so much I didn't know or understand hence an improperly formatted design. Thankfully I was referred to Darlene and Dan, who corrected all issues to ensure a successful publication.
When it came time to publish the second installment of my twelve-book series, I did not hesitate to reach out to Darlene and Dan to design the book from scratch. I am THRILLED that I did!
I cannot reiterate enough how happy I am with their creative and design choices as well as how listened to I felt throughout the process. All of my requests were considered and implemented resulting in a beautiful final proof.
Undertaking a very unconventional children's book concept is no easy task and I am just blown away and THRILLED that I have a team like Van-Garde Designs to be supported throughout the process.
David Bensimon, author of The Little Crab Makes a Friend series
Omg it came!!!!! I love love love it!!! Thank you so much for all your incredible work and help!!!
Cheers
—Adriane Costa