Play Your Way! Series
Penguin Random House | Written by Cat Reynolds | Board Book Format | 2024
Play Your Way! is a 3 book series that features Elmo and Friends playing in a variety of ways together. In each book, Elmo finds new ways to play by opening his mind and trying something new. Teach your little ones the joy of playing “your way” in this bright and cheerful book series!
I was asked to illustrate this series using “Color Pop!” the style guide I created for Sesame Street’s internal team several years before. You can see the full style guide here!
Elmo and Abby’s Playdate | Spring 2024
Elmo is going to Abby’s and Rudy’s house for a playdate. With superhero action figures and princess dolls to choose from, the friends discover that it doesn’t matter what toys you like to play with as long as you have fun!
I used the Color Pop! style guide I developed to build the overall style and palette for these books. However, the editor’s requested a more scenery-filled background as opposed to he bold, flat colors from the guide. In Elmo and Abby’s Playdate I created a full and messy playroom, but kept it clean enough for a clear view of the characters.
Elmo’s Sports Day | Summer 2024
Elmo, Abby, Grover, and Rosita show that sports and games are meant for everyone to enjoy. Some friends might be faster, some might have better aim, and some might be trying something for the very first time, but they all like playing every game together!
Throughout this series, I had the opportunity to use some of the playful design elements and bold backgrounds from the Color Pop! style guide. You can see this in Elmo’s Sports Day on the spread where Grover is hula hooping spread and through the use of hand-written text throughout!
Dress-Up Fun with Elmo | Fall 2024
Elmo plays dress-up with his friends—and has fun wearing all kinds of costumes! Sometimes they wear sparkly unicorn costumes, sometimes they pirate hats, and sometimes they dress-up as dancing firefighters. No matter what they pretend to be, everyone has fun when they play dress-up together!
Every book in the series had a character outside the Color Pop! style guide. This gave me the opportunity to draw Rudy, Rosita and Gabrielle. In Dress-Up Fun with Elmo, I even got to design fun outfits for Elmo and his friends!