The Client: 826valencia.org
The Context: A nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting under-resourced students through literacy and creative writing.
My Roles: Artist, Illustrator

Storefront Concept

Thanks to a grant from the San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development, I developed a storefront concept to promote 826 Valencia's new location in Mission Bay. Inspired by the new storefront's enchanted forest theme, as well as the inventive settings of children's writing and literature, I imagined the existence of a Muse Flower: a mystical source of creativity, hidden deep in a jungle. The final set design included larger-than-life flowers, toadstools, ferns, and dragonflies all constructed from book pages, recycled cardboard, and colorful crepe paper.

Children's Storybook Illustrations

As a volunteer and illustrator for the 826's popular field trip program, I drew furiously for two and a half hours every week to capture the characters, setting, and plot the children were writing about. Sometimes it was an island made of candy, other times a shark-headed wolf with wings that can shoot lasers out of its eyes. 

After every field trip, each child walks out the door with their own copy of a book they wrote together, featuring illustrations that bring their ideas to life. It's a bit like magic, and the kids are so stoked. This is a great organization doing fabulous work in the community, and I loved being a small part of it.

Food (especially candy) and treasure tended to feature prominently. Animal mashups were commonplace (I got pretty good at drawing many-limbed beasts). And unusual superpowers were a perennial favorite. Here are some sample storylines:

An adorable unicorn and fearsome two-headed dragon face-off over cheese puff currency, assisted by their sidekicks with vomiting superpowers.

In an upside-down forest, a young gymnast with telekinesis attempts to outwit a shark-headed antagonist to find the crystalline key to open a portal back to her own dimension.

A back-flipping unicorn and a glam, gender-split giraffe compete for rights to a candy-coated barn while a tornado-tsunami bears down on them.

Kids' imaginations are pretty great.