Moon Mouse is a children’s story by Corrinne Averiss exploring themes of loneliness, empathy and friendship. The brief was to illustrate four colour spreads and ten greyscale spreads, developing a visual style that could capture the emotional journey of the story.

The story follows Moon Mouse, who lives alone on the moon, filling his days with small projects and inventions. His favourite pastime is watching Earth from afar, particularly birthday celebrations. When a birthday boy loses his balloon and it drifts into space, Moon Mouse is faced with a choice: remain in the safety of his familiar home or venture beyond it to discover what it means to find a friend.

Primary and secondary research helped shape the visual direction. SurveyMonkey responses were used to understand the intended audience and establish an appropriate age range. Secondary research explored a range of children’s illustrators, analysing style, characterisation, layout and typographic treatment. This also informed the choice of typeface, with particular consideration given to legibility for early readers. Extensive thumbnailing explored different character designs, compositions and spread layouts, helping to establish a visual language that reflected the story’s changing emotions and sense of drama.

The final illustrations use characterisation, scale and perspective to reflect the changing mood and narrative. Moon Mouse and Birthday Boy are shown from a variety of perspectives and at contrasting scales, creating a sense of both intimacy and vastness within the lunar setting. Created digitally using Procreate on an iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil, the final collection combines expressive character work with atmospheric environments to bring Moon Mouse’s journey from isolation to connection to life.

Typography was treated as an extension of the narrative, using Futura PT in different weights to reflect changes in tone and drama:

Body Text — Futura PT Book
Slight Drama — Futura PT Medium
Serious Drama — Futura PT Heavy