Children’s Picture Book Design Tour of The Odd Dog by Leia Barrett

Sometimes you just know, right? And with "The Odd Dog," I just knew. But this would only work if I could get the author to take the trust fall with me.

Book Title: The Odd Dog

Author: Leia Barrett

Trim Size: 9×9

Page Count: 40

Special features: Linen cover with foil, double gatefold (watch the 1-minute video at the end of this post to see the double gatefold in action)

Formats available: Dustjacketed linen-wrapped hardback

Layout Style: Illustrated Children’s Book

Book Description:

A Funny, Sweet Story About Finding Where You Belong

In The Odd Dog, our furry friend leaves her wild park home to live with a family for the first time. She learned many things in nature, but her skills cause problems at home. Follow along as she discovers how to fit in!

Illustrator: Shannon McKeon

Editor: Laura Bontje

Proofreader: Robin Larin

Book Designer: Melinda Martin (that’s me!)

Body Font: Text set in American Typewriter I (an homage to Snoopy)

Display Lettering: Ginger Martin

Designer's Notes

Sometimes you just know, right? And with The Odd Dog, I just knew.

But this would only work if I could get the author to take the trust fall with me.

Sometimes they don’t.

Sometimes they are so emotionally attached to their story that they are unable to see the story through the eyes of someone else, specifically children who are fresh to the discovery of life and the wide world that awaits them.

When the author isn’t open to exploring perspectives and the balance of what makes a great picture book, they end up with a book that saturates its audience of buyers pretty quickly.

Leia said yes.

She said yes to making The Odd Dog the best book it could possibly be.

We rewrote, revised, stared at, and sat with the manuscript until it was chef’s kiss.

And we tackled each page, each impactful moment, and each decision with the same vigor.

I hope you love The Odd Dog as much as we do.

Character Sketch

The Odd Dog is based on Leia’s real-life rescue dog, Layla, and we originally used Layla as a reference.

However, while Layla is cute and odd with her long body and Schnauzer face, I knew she wasn’t quite odd enough.

We had to go…odder, and Leia had to agree to take the journey with Shannon (the illustrator) and me.

I asked Shannon to create an Odd Dog so I could present the new direction to Leia.

Leia approved and we set out to make Odd the perfect level of odd.

Interior Layout

With such a fun, messy, and odd character, we needed to make sure he was the star of every page (except one).

Inspired by the amazing art detail that graced the picture books I grew up with in combination with the experience of reading “Big,” the Caldecott-Medal winning book by Vashti Harrison and team, I went back to Leia with a new idea: Let’s do a double gatefold.

And, once again, she said yes.

She said yes to making The Odd Dog the best experience it could be.

Leia crowd-funded this book with Backerkit (and hit 136% of her goal!), and one of the options was to get your dog drawn into the book.

She also ran an Odd Dog contest, which had us all falling in love with odd dogs across the world.

There were two winners, and they were featured in the book on the double gatefold page. Introducing Koda the Canine Yoda and Waylon the Cardigan-Pembroke Corgi mix.

Storyboarding

The author and I work on which text will go on which page, and I make notes to the illustrator. Sometimes we have specific requests, and other times she is free to create as she is led. At this stage, everything is done in rough sketches, because there will be revision requests.

Line Art

After all rough sketches have been approved, the illustrator starts work on the line art and introducing details.

Color

After the line art has been approved, we submit any revision requests, then we sign-off on the interior’s core art and start on color decisions.

Although the goal is to make as few changes as possible during the line art and coloring stage, sometimes an adjustment is needed. On this spread, Odd was a little bit lost, and we need him to be the star of the show.

The original idea was to follow the limited color palette (yellow, black, green, white) in “Harry the Dirty Dog.” However, we had to expand the palette to allow for diverse skin tones.

End Pages Design

Shannon drew an assortment of dog toys, food bowls, and one super cute frog for me to use in the creation of the end pages.

I’ve never opted for end pages with a black background before, but I’m thrilled with how these turned out.

The first end page design is all about recognizing those dogs who have crossed the rainbow bridge.

The last end page design includes names from the people who supported this specific Backerkit reward tier.

The rainbow collar is seen again on the double gatefold page. Everyone who supported a specific Backerkit tier had their dog added to this spread. The dogs with the rainbow collars represent dogs who have crossed the rainbow bridge.

Cover Design

Once the line art has been approved, we then start on the cover. Sometimes we are able to use completed artwork for the cover but, in this case, we opted for some new art in addition to using some of the existing art as well. The Odd Dog is a special book that will be loved by both children and adults alike, and we wanted to give it a small bump in appeal for it’s adult audience. We did this by choosing a linen-wrapped cover for under the dustjacket (inspired by “Maybe,” designed by Jill Labieniec). You can see the incomplete cover in the print proof video below. The linen is there, but the foil won’t be placed until the mass production run.

Print Proof

Holding the print proof is always an emotional moment for everyone. Here is my 1-minute video review of The Odd Dog print proof. Mass production will start the week of November 10.

I hope you enjoyed this book design tour of The Odd Dog.

The mass-produced units will be ready for order fulfillment in February 2025.

Pre-order your copy here.

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