Natalie Burns approached me with an intriguing story inspired by her urban exploration adventures, particularly a visit to an abandoned mine. Captivated by the evocative atmosphere of the setting, she penned a children's tale titled "The Crumlins."
Interpreting the authors mood boards, adopting a new illustration style. Setting the pace and tone of the project. I developed the story concept into an interactive experience suitable for a digital format with the addition of animation and interactions.
The story focuses on a group of fantastical sprites that live deep in the mine. The crumlins lives were in jeopardy as with no one was using the mine it had fallen into disrepair. As a result the Crumlins were being forgotten.
The story goes on to follow the crumlins on their quest to save the mine and bring life back to the community.
These illustrations serve as the first chapter of the story setting the scene in a small welsh mining community.
Once on board I saw the opportunity to expand the remit of the project adapting it from printed media to an interactive digital offering. This allowed me to add add animation to the static imagery to help bring a level of finess to the narrative.
The new format would also allow the story to include educational information about mining communities and teach children the history of this region in a novel new way.
I worked with Nick at a UK web design agency and he was always creative and collaborative. We decided to work on a personal design and content project together. I had written a kids story and from his agency work I knew his illustrations were fantastic! Despite a fairly fuzzy brief from me, Nick took my mood boards, read the story and came up with some great design ideas that perfectly reflected what I wanted us to to convey. He’s one of those people who just ‘gets it’. He hit the ground running… and kept running. Along with the illustrations he created a beautiful prototype full of user friendly interactions in next to no time. He’s talented, unique and great fun to work with. I recommend!
Natalie Burns
Senior UX Designer at Nomensa and Author of 'The Crumlins'
