How the Moon Became Beautiful

Dimensions: 10" W x 8" H
Program: Photoshop + Indesign

How the Moon Became Beautiful is one of those stories that leaves a lot to the reader’s imagination, but that’s what makes it so fun. This children’s book is my interpretation of the folk tale’s characters, personalities, and tone.

While still set in Ancient China, the characters are a bit skewed. The most obvious example of this is the Moon himself, looking a bit emo with his dark lipstick and eye makeup. This was done to emphasize his dreary and dramatic attitude from the story. The characters are also designed to be more fanciful, taking inspiration from wuxia dramas.

There is a mix of full spreads and individual pages to surprise and delight as the reader flips through the pages. Given the longer story, it was a challenge to break up the text blocks in a natural way. After several mockups, breathing room was found by breaking off the story into shorter fragments a few times throughout.

I went with a fun and light-hearted twist to the classic story. The illustrations were punched with illogical colors to make them stray farther from reality. It doesn’t matter where the red is coming from because it’s fun, bright, and magical.This is how I think the Moon became beautiful.