Explorer Academy is 360° media property with books, videos and games for kids 8-12.
The franchise started with a 7-book FACT-BASED FICTION series and four nonfiction ancillary titles published over a period of 6 years.
The fiction books have four color interior that include maps, about 35 illustrations (by Scott Plumbe) each and a nonfiction section with photos in the back matter that describe the work of National Geographic explorers and how they inspired the fictional content. I designed all fiction and nonfiction book covers and art directed the interiors for the nonfiction series.
Website (UX/UI)
We built an exclusive website for the Explorer Academy world that would help market the book series. The site has coding games, character personality quizzes, and teasers about upcoming books. See live site at explorer academy.com. I used Sketch and Xd to do mockups and prototypes for the site.
Mobile Mockups
Navigation
The Navigation dropped down to a secondary nav so that it could remain open but not be too cluttered. This was also based on the natgeokids navigation research that we had done prior to building this site. See project here.
COPPA Compliant
Since this site is COPPA compliant, we warned kids that they were leaving the site if they clicked the SHOP button with these pop up screens.
Interactive Map Component
(UX/UI)
I also repurposed illustrations from the book to design mockups for an interactive map component that would encourage readers to explore different areas of the fictional campus.
Consumer Products
I designed mockups of physical games and toys to get potential partners excited about consumer products or book plus ideas.
Video Series
I consulted on character development and visual brand identity for a pilot for an animated video series and designed title cards for the nonfiction series on the National Geographic Kids YouTube channel. Check out an interview I gave for Collider on character development.
Style Guide
I developed a brand identity guide with special key art for each book, fonts, color palette, character guide and other assets for marketing. Here are a few sample pages.
