Ekaterina Trukhan’s Počuješ ma? [Can You Hear Me?] was first published in Slovakia and is inspired by her time spent outdoors while living in Montenegro.
The book is about the importance of maintaining a connection to nature: ‘I wanted to tell both children and parents how important it is not to lose touch with [nature] and I wanted to do this in a simple and poetic way,’ she says.
Trukhan, an established children’s book illustrator, started the project by creating a storyboard with rough thumbnails and text to present her idea to publisher Egres. Initially she worked solely in shades of grey to enable her to focus on the composition of the pages.
‘Together with the publisher we decided to get the book printed with four Pantone inks,’ says Trukhan. This limited palette became the most challenging aspect of the project. ‘It was like putting together a jigsaw puzzle,’ she adds. ‘By overlapping colours I was able to achieve that nostalgic feel I was looking for. The nice ivory shade of paper also helped me achieve that.’
Can You Hear Me? has since been published in the Czech Republic (as Slyšíš mě?), France and Canada.
Trukhan’s clients include South Korean children’s magazine Weedoo and Ladybird Books in the the UK. She has also designed pattern collections, baby blankets for Sophie Home (UK), and a range of sock designs for Moe in Slovakia.
Paper: Arena Ivory Rough 170 g/m2.