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Designed for Kids: Highlights in Recent Children’s Design Books

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New books for children from AMMO Books, Gestalten, Paintbox Press, Princeton Architectural Press, and Schiffer Publishing

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Kids, design, and books have come together in a variety of wonderful ways for several design book publishers this year. That means that in 2014—and particularly during the upcoming holiday season—young readers (whether chronologically or constitutionally so) and the adults in their lives have a wealth of choices in books designed with children in mind.

“Creativity and imagination are driving forces in our world today. Kids own that space!” says Pamela Pease, publisher at Paintbox Press, which produces design “dossiers” for children ages 10 and up.

“Milestones,” from Design Dossier: Graphic Design by Pamela Pease; Kids Design Collaborative; foreword by Michael Bierut (Paintbox Press)

We caught up with Pease and also with some key publishers, editors, and design directors from AMMO Books, Gestalten, Princeton Architectural Press, and Schiffer Publishing to get their perspective on what’s new in designing books for children—including books specifically intended to teach children about design.

For Pease, the children’s design books published by Paintbox Press, which she founded in 2002, “grew out of conversations I had with kids as I visited schools to show them how to make pop-ups (the first books we published were pop-ups). I realized that kids were interested in design, but didn’t really understand what it meant to be a designer.

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